By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Needham High School saw two of its varsity athletes sign their national letters of intent to play a sport at Brown University this past week.
Throughout the last four years, Grace Kelley was perhaps the most dominant all-around athlete at Needham High School. A three-sport star in field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse, Kelley committed to Brown to play lacrosse. Kelley was named a Bay State Conference All-Star the last time she suited up for Needham girls lacrosse as a sophomore in 2019. Kelley was also named a Bay State Conference All-Star in ice hockey as a junior last season.
Kelley helped Needham girls ice hockey to a 14-5-2 record in 2019-2020. The Rockets earned the No. 11 seed in the Division I Tournament and defeated St. Peter-Marian (2-1) in the preliminary round before a 2-0 defeat to Arlington in the first round.
As a sophomore in 2019, Kelley helped Needham girls lacrosse to a 16-4 record and the No. 3 seed in Division I South. Needham earned victories against Bridgewater-Raynham (19-8) and Duxbury (14-8) before falling to eventual state champion Notre Dame Academy in the sectional semifinals (8-6).
Kelley just recently completed her senior field hockey season for Needham and will play ice hockey this winter, followed by lacrosse this spring before heading off to Brown next fall.
Jessica McGrady also signed her NLI to row at Brown. McGrady is a member of Community Rowing, Inc out of Brighton and competed in the 2019 United States Rowing Youth Regional Challenge.
For funny and insightful sports analysis as well as video highlights of games, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram handles @flano0.
