From Jordan and Pippen to Montana and Rice to Maris and Mantle, the sports world is full of dynamic duos - players whose individual skills and on-field chemistry have led their teams, whose leadership has carried them, and whose journey together has defined them.
Without the dunk, the perfect spiral or the pinstripes, seniors Jeanne Grabowski and Lea Napolitano have played just this role for Tufts field hockey. Four-year starters and co-captains during their junior and senior seasons, the two have formed a stable core around which the Jumbos have built a solid program in recent years.
The pair has started every game they have played in a Jumbo uniform, with Napolitano anchoring the team's offense and defense at center midfield and Grabowski just next door at right mid. The two are neighbors on and off the field (they share upstairs and downstairs apartments of the same house along with teammates Therese Corsello and Erika Goodwin), and the two relationships have been mutually reinforcing, cultivating both the friendship and the on-field chemistry that played such a large role in their leadership styles.
In addition to sharing the midfield, and now a house, the two are both community health majors (Napolitano's second major is English and Grabowski's is American Studies). The outward similarities end quickly, though, as Grabowski's quick laugh and witty candor immediately stand out against Napolitano's calmer presence. It is exactly these differences that have been a source of strength on and off and field, and the relaxed, comfortable back-and-forth between them reveals the deeper bond they've developed.
"We've gotten so much closer over the four years," Grabowski said. "We've seen each other evolve, which is really cool. I think we work well together - we joke that Lea takes care of the girls and I'm the enforcer."
"I'm the mom and Jeanne's the dad," Napolitano continued. "Calling her the enforcer sounds like a negative thing; she's really the motivator. When the freshmen first come in, she's the more intimidating one, but I think that's good. There's a good balance."
Teammates highlighted the pair's complementary personalities and leadership styles.
"They bring together exactly the type of leadership you'd want," junior Stacey Watkins said. "Together, they're the perfect leaders. Jeanne is a big communicator on the field, and I wouldn't say that Lea's a softie, because she's not, but she definitely has a more nurturing nature. Part of our strength on the field was communication and meshing as a team, and they really made that happen."
Sophomore Meghan Becque put it a little more concisely.
"Jeanne is the one that will beat somebody up for you, and Lea is the one that will pick you up off the ground," she said.
Grabowski latched onto field hockey in seventh grade, and while she drifted in and out of basketball and soccer during high school, field hockey remained her primary sport. As the youngest of three children, the Pleasantville, NY native found her competitive spirit early on.
"I have two older brothers that used to beat me up all the time," she said with a laugh. "I think they helped to give me my aggressive edge for field hockey."
Napolitano's involvement in the sport started slightly later in life when, after playing soccer through most of her childhood, she picked up field hockey during her freshman year in high school in Waltham, Mass. The sport is something of a family tradition for Napolitano, as her older sister played at both Merrimack and UMass-Amherst and her younger sister is currently on the team at the University of New Hampshire.
Napolitano acknowledged the influence that athletics had on her development.
"I've acquired a good work ethic," she said. "[Playing sports] taught me how to challenge myself. It's hard to tell what I would have been without it, because I don't know what its like not to be on a team."
During high school, both Napolitano and Grabowski were recruited by then-coach Carol Rappoli.
"She called me and said 'Do you want to be a Jumbo?' and I said 'Sure,' and that was that," Grabowski said. "Between field hockey and the community health program and Carol, I was set."
Napolitano's college search started a little differently than her teammate's, but ended in the same place.
"My junior year, I was looking at a bunch of Div. I schools because I was really gung-ho about playing field hockey in college," she said. "But by senior year, I was kind of burned out and started looking at Div. III schools. Carol called and I came and visited and I loved Tufts."
The two found positions on the field immediately, earning the center and right midfield spots that they held through their senior seasons. They became quick friends, a bond which resurfaced even stronger when the two were chosen as tri-captains in their junior season, along with then-senior Dana Panzer.
"They're really mature, as players and as people, and they know what it's all about," McDavitt said. "They're very disciplined, and they took their jobs as seriously as I hoped they would. They came back fit, focused, and wanted to win, and they were on my page in terms of getting the team to work together and getting everyone to do what they needed to do."
Watkins talked about what influenced her vote for the rising juniors over the team's other three seniors for the tri-captaincy in 2004.
"It was their presence on the field; the way they're able to play their game," she said. "Even though they weren't seniors, their personas on the field made them seem older, and they really knew how to pump the team up."
The two would make an impact separately and together throughout their four years on the field. Napolitano finished her career with 16 goals and 13 assists, and Grabowski totaled five goals and 11 assists. But even these stats inadequately cover a job extremely well done - the midfield position has both an offensive and defensive component, and the often unenviable task of fusing the two, and Grabowski and Napolitano in tandem anchored a strong-stick side for the Jumbos.
"They complement each other, work off each other, and bring different attributes to the game," McDavitt said. "They're just on the same page."
While the two will leave the Hill in May, they will leave a legacy for younger players - a love of the game, a desire to win, and a clear concept of team that will last long after #11 and #17 have gone.
Becque, whose freshman year warm-up partner was then-junior Napolitano, will take much away from the quiet leadership she observed as she steps up as an upperclassman.
"I watched the way she played - serious, but motivational and positive at the same time," Becque said. "I really look up to her and the way she dealt with her leadership role. They're big shoes to fill."
Watkins, a junior who will attempt just that task in the 2006 season, recognized the ways in which the dynamic between the two inspired both an awareness of team and an individual dedication directed to that end.
"They have something special in that they're really good friends," Watkins said. "When one's down, the other can pick her up. They feed off each other to make us push each other harder. As a player, to see something like that makes you want to do better, to try harder, not just for yourself but for them, too, because they're working so hard for you."
Grabowski and Napolitano talked about their plans for the future with slight apprehension and nostalgia.
"I'll miss being on a team," Napolitano said. "I'll never experience that again. I'll always find a place to play field hockey, but I don't think I'll ever have that same relationship with people on a team again. It's a really neat feeling to be an integral part of something."
"There's nothing like the relationships you form in-season," Grabowski added. "I've seen these girls more than I've seen my family in the past four years."
When asked what she'll miss most, Grabowski didn't hesitate.
"Saturday night team bonding at 347 [Boston Ave.]," she said, pausing for a moment. "And long bus rides."
