By Halley Griggs
There are moments in life when everything comes full circle — when the lessons you’ve spent a lifetime collecting quietly rise to the surface and remind you who you are. For me, that circle has always been drawn by sports.
I grew up on fields where the grass stayed in my cleats for days. I grew up in huddles, on bus rides, with bruised shins, big dreams, and a heart that learned early what it meant to compete, to belong, to strive. I learned how to handle pressure, how to push when I was tired, how to show up for others, and how to get back up every time life knocked me down.
Those lessons became my foundation. Sports were no longer something I did — they became the lens through which I saw the world. They shaped my confidence, my leadership style, my resilience, and my belief that adversity is not a barrier but a pathway. They taught me that grit and grace can coexist, effort reveals character, and progress is something you earn inch by inch.
As I grew from athlete to coach, and eventually to mother, those lessons never left me. They simply evolved. And they eventually became the heartbeat behind something bigger: the desire to create a space where young women could experience that same transformation.
WHY WE BUILT TRIPLE THREAT LACROSSE
When Ciara and I founded Triple Threat Lacrosse, we believed deeply in the power of sport to shape a young woman’s life. Not just in the obvious ways — skills, fitness, competition — but in the profound, lasting ways that don’t show up on a scoreboard.
We wanted to build something that mattered. Something that would mean something to the girls who walked through our doors.
We imagined a place where young women could step onto a field and feel seen, supported, challenged, empowered and connected. A place where they could chase their dreams playing a sport they love and discover parts of themselves in the process — confidence, resilience, voice, leadership, joy.
We believed that if we created an environment grounded in encouragement, accountability, and authentic connection, something powerful would happen. Girls would push one another. They would believe in themselves. They would take risks. They would rise. They would learn to lead. And eventually, they would take those lessons into every part of their lives — school, friendships, families, future careers, and communities.
Triple Threat Lacrosse grew out of a simple but profound belief: that sport is a catalyst for becoming.
We wanted to provide a place where that becoming could unfold fully — where young women could develop not only as lacrosse players, but as humans who learn how to work hard, lift others up, and trust their own strength.
We believed deeply that sports are one of the greatest teachers of character. When a girl finds her voice on the field, she finds it everywhere. When she discovers she can do hard things in competition, she discovers she can do hard things in life.
AND THEN LIFE REINFORCED WHY THIS WORK MATTERS
Becoming a mother deepened all of this for me in ways I could never have anticipated. Motherhood has a way of reshaping everything — your priorities, your patience, your perspective, your understanding of what true strength looks like. And in one of the most unexpected chapters of my life, those lessons took on an entirely new dimension.
As many in the TTL family know, during the 2024 high school season — nearing the end of coaching a very special group that spring — I delivered my youngest daughter, Charlotte (“Charley”), at just 23 weeks. She weighed one pound. She was impossibly tiny, fiercely determined, and facing odds no parent ever imagines. Those early days were overwhelming, disorienting, and terrifying. And yet, without consciously realizing it at first, I found myself leaning on the very lessons that sports had instilled in me since childhood.
The NICU is its own world. It’s a place where progress is measured in grams, breaths, and minutes. Where time stretches and contracts in the same heartbeat. Where hope and fear sit side by side. And where resilience becomes more than something you admire in athletes; it becomes something you must embody.
What surprised me most was how instinctively I reached back to my athletic foundation:
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The discipline to stay steady when everything felt uncertain.
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The grit to get up each day and face whatever came next.
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The ability to trust a team — doctors, nurses, specialists — the way you trust teammates on the field.
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The emotional endurance to keep showing up, even when you’re exhausted and scared.
These weren’t new skills. They were simply being used in a different arena — one with higher stakes, deeper emotions, and an entirely different kind of scoreboard.
And in that space, something crystallized for me.
I understood, in the most profound way, why the work we do at TTL matters. Why empowering young women matters. Why teaching resilience matters. Why building leadership and confidence matters. Because life will ask every one of them — at some point, in some unexpected moment — to draw on reserves of strength they didn’t know they had. To navigate uncertainty. To trust their voice. To lean into community. To keep going.
My journey with Charley didn’t just reaffirm our philosophy at Triple Threat — it illuminated it.
It reminded me that sports aren’t just preparing young women for competition. They’re preparing them for life. For adversity. For leadership. For the moments that test them, shape them, and reveal who they are.
THE MISSION THAT’S NEVER CHANGED — AND HOW FAR WE’VE COME
What began as a vision has grown into a thriving community. Over the years, we’ve watched our athletes transform in extraordinary ways.
We’ve seen reserved middle schoolers evolve into fearless high school captains. We’ve seen players take their game to the collegiate level, thriving because of heart and hard work, not just talent. We’ve watched TTL alumni step into the world as leaders — teachers, nurses, creatives, analysts, entrepreneurs — carrying with them the grit, teamwork, and confidence they learned through sport.
We’ve seen them return to coach, mentor, volunteer, and inspire the next generation.
Our mission — to build athletes and grow leaders — has never wavered. But its impact has expanded beyond what we ever imagined.
WHY WE’RE LAUNCHING ‘THE DRAW’
Every athlete has a story. A story shaped not only by highlight-reel moments but also by the quiet, gritty ones — moments of courage, doubt, triumph, adversity, and growth.
These stories deserve to be told.
With The Draw, we are creating a place where those stories can live.
A place where our current athletes can see themselves in one another.
A place where our alumni can share the paths they’ve taken — smooth and rugged.
A place where families and coaches can witness the power of resilience and community.
A place where leadership, perseverance, and heart take center stage.
The Draw will highlight the wins, yes. But it will also illuminate the losses, the comebacks, the rebuilding seasons, and the moments that shaped these young women behind the scenes.
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
The Draw isn’t just a blog.
It’s a conversation.
A celebration.
A reflection.
A passing of the torch.
It’s where the heartbeat of Triple Threat Lacrosse will live in words — through the voices of our coaches, our athletes, our alumni, our families, and our community. It’s where leadership is revealed through lived experience, and where every girl who reads these stories will feel, in some way, more seen, more inspired, more empowered.
This is where every play starts.
And now, it’s where our storytelling starts too.
Welcome to The Draw. We’re so glad you’re here.