Oct. 9, 2014 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Owen Griffith can't recall the first time he attended a Penn State sporting event.
It's not because he has a bad memory. He was just a little too young to remember.
"Oh gosh, probably before I was a year old I was up at something," Griffith said. "My mom and dad were always bringing me up to football games, soccer games, women's basketball, you name it."
Griffith, a senior midfielder on the Penn State men's soccer team, has been a Nittany Lions fan since birth. His parents, Sam and Amy, are both graduates and raised their son to bleed blue and white.
Today, Griffith is the captain of the No. 3 ranked team in the nation. While that may sound like a pretty sweet situation for any college soccer player, it means a bit more to him.
Growing up 45 minutes outside of State College in Lewisburg, Pa., Griffith only had one major aspiration growing up and only one school where he wanted to pursue it.
"My teachers would laugh when I was little because I would say I wanted to be a pro soccer player, and they would laugh and say, 'that's way out of reach,'" Griffith said. "But I've playing since I was little and I'm just following my dream.
"Playing at Penn State is an absolute honor and I'm thankful everyday to realize my dream. When I finally committed here, my mom was so happy because it's just a tradition for my family."
As a junior at Lewisburg Area High School, Griffith knew he wanted to play for Penn State but didn't feel like the interest would ever be mutual. That all changed the next year when Bob Warming was hired as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
During a senior season in which he was named first team All-State, Griffith began to be recruited by Warming. Although he was also drawing interest from a number of Big Ten schools, the lifelong Nittany Lions fan made his intentions clear to the coach.
"As soon as I started talking to him, I told him, 'coach, if you'll have me there's not another choice in my mind,'" Griffith said. "Sometimes that's a risky thing to tell college coaches in the recruiting process because it could maybe give them the upper hand. With coach Warming, he's such a trustworthy guy that he just had my best interest in mind."
Even if Warming didn't have a spot on the roster for him, Griffith says he still might have picked Penn State anyway.
"I was definitely thinking about [coming to Penn State just as a student]," Griffith said. "When I was in the recruiting process I had a couple of other schools in mind. But Penn State was always in the back of my head like, 'even if I don't play soccer in college...there's still Penn State and I would love to go there.'"
Luckily for both parties, things worked out and Griffith has been a mainstay for the Nittany Lions ever since.
Although he entered 2014 with two All-Big Ten second team appearances already on his resume, the senior has in many ways saved his best performance for his last season.
As the team's defensive center midfielder, Griffith doesn't get on the stat sheet much with just one goal and one assist in Penn State's first 11 games. He has however, been the leader of a defense that posted nine shutouts and allowed just three goals in that same time frame.
While Griffith has been invaluable to a Penn State squad that is 10-0-1 a year after reaching the Sweet 16, he rarely talks about himself. Instead, he credits his development as a player to his coach.
"[Coach Warming] is the most knowledgeable soccer coach and he's taught me so many things," Griffith said. "I've always been an athletic and fit guy but there were a lot of aspects of my game I could improve and he's just made me a better soccer player."
Despite the midfielder's talent on the field, the first that comes to mind when you ask his coaches about him is his leadership. And for good reason.
Two years ago, Warming approached Griffith with a proposition. He wanted the 19-year old sophomore to be one of the team's captains, a role he has held ever since.
"He's a culture changer," Warming says. "He is one of those guys that has improved every aspect of his game. He's been a great citizen off the field, he's been great in the classroom, he's been a real teammate. For me, if there's a reason why were doing so well it's because of him and the seniors."
What exactly makes Griffith such a terrific leader? According to his teammates, it's the way he leads by example.
This Wednesday, Griffith and a number of other seniors were given the day off. Instead of relaxing, the third-year captain had a better idea.
"We went for a 10-mile hike yesterday, just on a whim," senior defender Eli Dennis said. "He's really active and always go-go-go. He's game to do whatever you want to do."
Though his time as a Nittany Lion will soon be coming to an end, Griffith has no plans to walk away from soccer entirely.
A kinesiology major, Griffith hopes to join the coaching ranks after he decides to hang up his cleats, though he doesn't know when that will be.
"I'd like to play after school, and depending on how long that lasts I'd like to go to grad school for exercise science," Griffith said. "I think that would make me a marketable soccer coach. A former soccer player with a masters level knowledge of how the body works in terms of the game I think would make me a very marketable coach."
Until that day, Griffith will keep living out the dream of a kid who went from sitting in the Jeffrey Field bleachers to starring on the field.
"To be part of the sports community at Penn State that people are so fired up about," Griffith said. "It's amazing."