Northwestern High School athlete plays 3 sports, and she’s an All-Star in 2 of them

Northwestern senior Darby Grigg played in the annual South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association Girls All-Star Game last month.

That game features the 24 best senior girls basketball players in the state, 12 each from the northern and southern sections of the state.

The 5-foot-7 guard led Team North with 18 points and was named Most Valuable Player in the 102-90 loss.

“North-South was an amazing experience,” Grigg said. “That was some amazing girls that I got to play with, and it was really fun to be able to play on that level of competition.”

Now, Grigg has been selected for another North-South game: the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association (SCACA) North-South Soccer Classic. That event is in June.

Grigg has scored 24 goals for Northwestern this season, and the striker is well on her way to her third-consecutive All-Region selection. The Trojans have a 10-6 record.

“(This season) is definitely going good,” Grigg said. “We have a lot of new talent coming up from JV, and it’s helped us a lot. We’ve done good against some challenging teams that we’ve played against. I think we’ve done good with prepping ... and practice and applying that to the game.”

Grigg has the ability to juggle three sports -- she also plays volleyball. And those who’ve seen Grigg in the classroom know that she holds herself to a high standard in anything she does.

“She devotes as much to academics as she does to her athletics,” said Candice Phillips, an assistant girls soccer coach and English teacher at Northwestern who taught Grigg during her junior year. “And that is just amazing to me because I know her athletic schedule.

“I see her pushing three sports a year. And she doesn’t just do (practice and games). She’s in the gym after practice, before practice. She’s working out all the time, and it’s just amazing to me what she has accomplished.”

For now, Grigg is focused largely on leading Northwestern’s girls soccer team through the rest of the season.

Head coach Jason Mouzon said her competitiveness and leadership are paying major dividends for a team with a lot of freshman.

“Having Darby on the team is having the ultimate competitor on the team,” Mouzon said recently. “Everything that we do out there, whether it’s a rondo or a 1v1 competition, she wants to win. Not only does it raise her own level of play, but it raises everybody else’s level of play. She’s a great example for her teammates.”

Grigg has scholarship offers from Coastal Carolina and Furman to play basketball.