Keila Grigware loves playing volleyball. It might be her favorite sport.
Or maybe basketball is. Or track.
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The Biddeford High senior isn’t sure.
“When I’m in the middle of a season, I love it,” she said. “I focus on that sport and put every ounce of passion into it.”
This much is certain about Grigware: Whatever sport she’s playing at the time, she’s pretty good at it.
“She’s a throwback,” said South Portland girls’ basketball coach Mike Giordano, who has watched Grigware for four years. “She’s a three-sport athlete and she excels at all three. I wish we had more of her type of kid.”
The 5-foot-10 Grigware is about to score her 1,000th career point. She’s got 996 heading into today’s 7 p.m. home game against Kennebunk. She’s hoping to get those four points quickly, she said, “so we can just go play the game after.”
And that’s how she is. While 1,000 points has been a goal of Grigware’s since she started as a freshman for Ron Cote, she never let her pursuit of that goal get in the way of making the Tigers a better team.
And that’s never been more evident than this year. The Tigers, a young team with injury problems, are only 1-6. But Grigware has shown no signs of frustration.
“That’s not her personality,” said Brian Heal, the first-year coach of the Tigers. “She has a great attitude. She wants to make her teammates better, this program better, and she’s done that. We’re struggling recordwise but the girls are playing well.
“It’d be easy to get down but we haven’t. And Keila and the other seniors deserve a lot of credit for that.”
Grigware said it’s all about looking ahead.
“You’ve got to keep a positive attitude with the young players,” she said. “We’re going into every game not even thinking about the past. If we can get one win, that can become two wins.”
Grigware, who led the SMAA in scoring last season by averaging 19.8 points along with 8.8 rebounds and 3.4 steals, is doing her best to get that second win. She sometimes plays the point guard position, sometimes on the wing, often in the low post, where she is nearly unstoppable.
If she doesn’t score, most likely she’ll either find an open teammate for a layup or get fouled — and she has converted nearly 80 percent of her career foul shots.
“She has great strength,” said Cote. “That’s the No. 1 thing about Keila. And she’s also very athletic. She’s a big girl who can dribble, can play the point or center, shows a lot of versatility.”
She’s averaging 16.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 3.0 assists and 1.0 blocks a game this season.
“To be honest, she’s our best ballhandler, our best wing player and our best post player,” said Heal. “She really is incredibly versatile.
“But I really think the one thing that gets overlooked is her feel for the game, her court vision. Her passing is something not a lot of people talk about; they tend to focus on her scoring, but she sees the floor very well. She sees the play two, three steps ahead of everyone else.”
Giordano knows that all too well.
“I think she’s a kid who could have scored 1,300 career points, but she’s so unselfish, always looking to pass,” he said.
“She plays the game the right way.”
In the upcoming weeks, Grigware faces a big decision: basketball or track? Although she was named Gatorade’s Maine volleyball player of the year last fall those are the sports she dominates.
She has competed in track for just two springs, but she is the state’s best javelin thrower and finished 17th in the nationals in 2009 and sixth in 2010.
Division I schools Richmond and New Hampshire along with Division III power Bates, are pursuing her for track. But basketball, a sport she said she’s “played since, I can’t remember,” is also in the picture.
Assumption and Rhode Island College along with the University of Southern Maine and St. Joseph’s are interested.
“I’ve thought about this a lot,” she said. “Unfortunately, no final decision has been made yet.”
Heal would love to see her continue playing basketball.
“And all things being equal, I think she’d rather play basketball,” he said. “But when you’re talking full scholarships (for track), all things aren’t equal. The thing is, she’s doing it the right way.”
Just like she does on the playing field.
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
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