Walpole carries on without star senior
Griffin tore ACL last spring
If you’re a Walpole Porker, aspiring for the state championship isn’t so much an idea as it is a tradition.
FIELD HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
The 12 state titles in their trophy case are well-documented, and star seniors Natalie Griffin, Caroline Whelan and Jess Tosone are wellaware of the fact the program hasn’t won one since 2016, too. The mere conversation of falling in the Div. 1 South final in 2018 and 2019 makes Griffin sigh; knowing how close they’ve gotten. They want one badly.
Losing a season to COVID didn’t help matters. But then Griffin — a two-time AllScholastic center-back — tore her ACL last spring with close friends Whelan and Tosone on the lacrosse field alongside her, effectively ruling her out for their senior season.
That wasn’t just a setback. It was a gut punch.
“That moment with stick with me forever,” Whelan said.
Never did Tosone think the trio’s annual conversations about how to replace certain key players would be about Griffin. But she also never thought that without the most important part of their defense, Walpole wouldn’t allow a single goal until Wednesday’s win over Central Catholic.
The Porkers are 9-0 with eight shutouts, checking in at No. 2 in the MIAA’s latest Div. 1 power rankings. They haven’t missed a beat.
“I don’t think any of us expected us to be where we are right now without Natalie,” Tosone said. “I was really nervous at first. She’s obviously one of the strongest players on the team so I didn’t know what to expect with her gone. … We knew we would still be a strong group, but I don’t think we thought we’d be undefeated.”
With Whelan at forward, Tosone at center-midfielder and Griffin at center-back, Walpole was incredibly strong by having its three best players leading each phase. When Griffin went down, Walpole coach Jen Quinn didn’t know what to do for that defensive unit.
At first, the thought was move Whelan back there, but the attack needed her.
Next in line was junior Lindsey Jacobs, and the transition from the right-side back to center has been seamless. Brigid Welch, Katie Colleran, Meghan Riley and Brianna Fruci have thrived in front of goalie Maddy Clark, too, and Walpole’s leadership can’t say enough about the job they’ve done.
Simply put, everybody’s stepped up.
“Some of my young’uns, in the beginning of the year, I wasn’t so certain how they’d grow and develop,” said Quinn. “They’re stepping right up and holding their own.”
“We found a strong defensive group — Lindsey Jacobs being one of them. Took the center-back position and I think she surprised a lot of people,” Tosone added. “You really need a strong and vocal person in the centerback position and she’s been doing well.”
Griffin watches Tosone, Whelan and Jacobs thrive from the sideline, far from ambivalent about her new role. Every practice and game has seen her – who teammates jokingly call ‘Coach Nat’ — cheering and advising. Quinn even sees a lot of the younger players asking her for input when they’re too nervous to ask the coaches.
Coaching or playing, Griffin just wants a title.
“That would be unbelievable,” she said. “It would honestly mean the same, if I was playing or not. I don’t know, watching all of them — how much better they’ve gotten. I literally feel like a coach. It would just solidify the last few years. It would be so cool.”
So far, Walpole has a great chance, which Whelan and Tosone feel better about each day. Whelan says team chemistry, even outside of the core trio, is a crucial component. Wins over Natick, Needham, Cohasset and Central Catholic have strengthened the cause, and a huge game against undefeated Franklin Monday night will be a great test as well.
“I still think we’re being so successful and doing so well,” Whelan said. “We really do have a shot, even if our best player is out.”
Optimism surrounds new power rankings
We’re now two weeks into the new MIAA power rankings system. From what they’ve seen, coaches have been mostly pleased with the results.
The first rankings showed some discrepancies with incorrect records and some tilted positions from the true value of some teams, but many coaches understand what has been communicated all along – rankings will be more accurate as the season progresses, and there will be kinks to adjust along the way.
Rockport coach and field hockey committee chairperson Mary Ryan backed what she finds to be an early success and loves the excitement that playoff-seeding rankings adds.
“With anything new there will be kinks that need to be worked out. But I think overall they were great,” she said. “I think coaches and players are excited. As one who used to try to figure out the seeding of my division by combing through newspapers and the MIAA website for scores, this is definitely 100-times better. The momentum and excitement of being able to see where you are week to week will add to a school community getting behind their teams.”
One of those kinks will be corner penalty rules. If a game is out of reach and a penalty corner is called as time expires, the corner won’t be played. With new MOV rules, that goal now matters.
“We need to change and allow the corner,” Ryan said.
After the second release, Wellesley – whose record was incorrect in the first rankings — jumped up to No. 8 with the correction.
Teams within ultra-competitive leagues like the Middlesex League, Cape and Islands League and Cape Ann League took a bit of a surprising tumble. So did Cohasset, which sits at No. 12 despite a strong record while playing top-tier teams. As a large handful of coaches have communicated, though, we just don’t know how it will look until the final result.