Kate and Anna Griffin, twins and multi-sport athletes, went beyond athletics to enrich their high school experience
One look at an activity log for either Kate or Anna Griffin and one thing is clear and obvious: Neither one seems to crave downtime.
The (non-identical) twins are constantly busy whether it’s on the athletic fields, in the classroom or volunteering for their community. They do it all and they do it all very well.
And they mostly do it at different schools. Anna spent her high school days at Coronado where she played volleyball and tennis. She qualified for the Class 4A state tennis tournament three times and helped the Cougars reach the 4A volleyball semifinals this previous fall.
Like her sister, Kate is a multi-sport athlete, only she competes at the Colorado Springs School after figuring out that she preferred a small-school environment. Kate runs cross country, plays basketball and in the spring plays both tennis and golf. As the Kodiaks don’t have a golf team, Kate played for Coronado.
She took 12th at the 2019 2A girls state cross country meet before placing third at the 3A girls tennis tournament and turning around less than two weeks later to take sixth at state golf.
“She excels at every sport but she has more accolades in golf, tennis and cross country over her career,” CSS girls basketball coach and athletic director Vicki Vaughn said. “She was all-state in all three of those sports, but basketball always resonated with her because of the team aspect.”
That right there is the true spirit of both Griffin sisters. They prioritize others over self and that’s especially true outside of athletics.
They’re both members of the National Honor Society and spent countless hours volunteering for their schools and communities.
“It’s definitely something I thought about right when I joined CSS,” Kate said. “At a private school, academics always come first. Community service is a requirement but it’s very important to me. It wasn’t all that challenging to figure out I needed to balance athletics as well as being involved in the community and the school.”
It runs in the family.
Anna takes the same approach at Coronado. She likes taking a leadership mentality to the volleyball and tennis courts and uses that same approach to better the world around her. It’s a heavy burden for a high school student to take on, but as she’s progressed in athletics and activities, it’s clear that it’s part of who she is, not what she does.
“Going into high school through sports, that’s something I wanted to do by being a team captain or even just as a freshman on the JV team,” Anna said. “That translated through my service. Being a part of NHS or NCL — which is the National Charity League — we did a lot of community service.”
A lot of that community service was was done through the John Zay Guest House which she quickly proclaimed to be her favorite charity.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of how busy both sisters are is how they can balance every task on their plate and do it at a high level.
“It takes somebody very driven and motivated to maintain that balance and focus on important things like that,” former Coronado volleyball coach Crissy Leonhardt said. “She has it. She’s that kid. She’s a go-getter. When she puts her mind to something she’ll get it done and she will do it right.”
The one thing she had yet to do, and was on the verge of this spring, was sharing the playing field with her sister. Kate originally devoted most of her time to golf and for their senior year, she wanted Anna to join the team with her.
“She was pretty convincing,” Anna said. “I had talked to the golf coach a little bit about it and she was edging me to do it and I was pretty close. There’s a very good chance I would’ve been on the golf team.”
Which would’ve meant splitting time between golf and tennis. But not to worry because Kate had that blueprint all worked out.
Kate’s only intention was to add to it and had planned on playing soccer for Colorado Springs School as well as tennis while also competing for Coronado’s golf team.
“It’s kind of just become muscle memory,” Kate said of keeping her activities and school work all in line.
Although they didn’t get to share time on the golf course together, they have four years of shared experiences ahead of them. Both girls will attend Colorado State and study bio sciences.
And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them find their way to some sort of athletic competition whether it’s intramurals, club or even somehow varsity.
If they’ve shown anything these last four years, it’s that they can find time to carve out for any activity they want.
