The clock is winding down on unknown hardwood as the Ghosts are facing the Lions. The enemy crowd chanting and hollering at players trying to throw them off their game. In the final seconds, he seal it with two free throws putting WA up seven. After a tremendous game of big plays and defensive stops Eddy is gassed and it’s finally over, he finally silenced the crowd. Even after getting beat up all night, him and his teammates run to the locker room and for the fourth time in WA history, have have become DCL champs.

Senior captain, DCL MVP, and Boston Herald All-Scholastic team member Griffin Eddy has a long resume of accomplishments from this season’s basketball season. Although, even with his credentials, he will not be playing bball at the collegiate level, rather focusing his next four years at the Smeal College of Business of Pennsylvania State University.

The end of a sport that Eddy has played since the first grade isn’t easy to do. Some people can never outgrow their hoop passion, but that wasn’t the case for Eddy. Even with the many schools nabbing for the DCL MVP’s attention, Eddy chose his education over the sport because it was the best decision for him.

“I chose to go to Penn State’s business school [Smeal], because it is one of the best business schools in the country. The colleges that were interested in me didn’t have as good of a business school as Penn State does,” Eddy said.

COVID always seems to have lingering effects in the community. For Eddy, it really hurt his chance to get recruited by schools last year due to the season getting canceled. Without another full varsity season of achievements and film, college scouts were skeptical of the Ghost’s star.

“With COVID the recruiting process wasn’t great since we didn’t play last year. I didn’t really get my name out there till this season. By then I already wanted to go to a bigger school and more importantly get a great education. The only way I was going to play in college was if I got to go somewhere with a better education than my top choices,” Eddy said.

Like every kid, Eddy had dreams of playing in college in front of enormous crowds with everyone screaming his name, but sometimes not all of his dreams can come true. As he grows up, his dreams grow up, and Eddy’s new dream is to focus on his education and how powerful it can be.

“When I was a little kid it was a dream of mine to play college basketball, but as high school went along I realized that my education was more important,” Eddy said. “This year in particular kind of made me think about playing college basketball, just because of how good our team was, but ultimately I chose not to.”

Some players often get the feeling of being washed up after their high school careers come to a close, while some are relieved by how much less joint pain they will have. Going to shoot hoops outside in the driveway or at the Mill Works isn’t the same. For most seniors there is no more next season.

“It does feel really weird thinking of not playing basketball anymore. It is sad because of how it has almost consumed my life. I have been playing basketball for so long and thinking of going a winter without playing it makes me feel really weird,” Eddy said.

Ironically, most athletes won’t miss the playing as much as their team and how they bonded over the season. They’ll miss looking into the crowd after a big win and the emotional coach’s speech after a big game. As much as they hate it in the moment, they’ll also miss coming to practice everyday just to talk to your teammates and cracking jokes. Eddy will truly miss his team, but looks forward to his future and all that is to come.

“One of my favorite moments has to be beating SJP [Saint John’s Prep] at home in the playoffs and beating Newton South in their home gym for the DCL tournament championship.  I’ll also miss just being around the guys on the team. The team chemistry was great and everyone enjoyed being around everyone,” Eddy said. “The thing I’ll miss most is probably the practices just because of how fun they usually were. I just want to thank everyone who made this last ride very very special.”