PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Now in their fifth year as members of the Robert Morris women's lacrosse team, Kelley Flynn and Madison Griffin have seen their share of battles on the field for the Colonials.
Best friends since childhood and veterans of over 100 combined games for RMU, the duo have formed an important part of a Colonials core that has averaged double-digit wins every season since the onset of their freshman seasons in 2018 and last year helped guide RMU to the inaugural MAC women's lacrosse championship with a perfect 10-0 conference record.
And while the pursuit of a second ring will be paramount in the minds of both grad students as they play out their final season of eligibility this spring, the pair have been on the frontlines of another battle for almost a year: the battle against COVID-19.
"It can be a lot to take care of everyone, but to know that we're doing that, not everybody can work those 12-hour shifts and work those hours," Flynn said. "We really are out fighting the frontlines of this everyday."
Upon receiving their Bachelor of Science degrees in nursing last spring, most student-athletes in Flynn and Griffin's position would have had to choose between one more season as a dedicated student-athlete and beginning their new careers as full time nurses amidst an ongoing pandemic.
One year later, the duo's impact on and off the field has never been greater.
With nurses in the Western Pa. area at a premium, Flynn and Griffin have spent the last six months balancing graduate school and an upcoming lacrosse season with full-time roles as caregivers to those suffering the most from the spred of COVID.
The average day for the pair sees a full load of coursework and a 90 minute practice before shuffling off to work a 12-hour shift at one of Pittsburgh's area hospitals. Flynn works on the Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, while Madi is currently employed and working in the MedicalSurgical Unit at Allegheny Health Network West Penn Hospital.
"This fifth year has honestly been the most amazing," Griffin said. "Nursing has definitely made me step into more of a leadership role both on and off the field, I'm just so honored to be able to come back to a program and a coaching staff that was able to make this work."
Flynn's unit specifically has been overtaken by the surging Omicron variant in recent months, transforming from a Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit to a full COVID unit with around 20 patients to care for at any moment.
"Beforehand we had maybe two or three COVID patients on the floor, but in the last few months we've transferred to a full COVID only unit. We've got almost 20 beds in our unit, it can be a lot to take care of everyone."
Griffin and Flynn are the latest in a long line of Colonials women's lacrosse players to enter the field of nursing, though the balancing act of doing both at the same time is something even head coach Katrina Silva can't help but marvel at.
"We're really fortunate to have a great nursing department here at RMU that has worked really well with athletics and our team," Silva said. "That's not common at a lot of schools. You'll see a lot of Division I schools that say they have nursing students, but most of them quit nursing to play lacrosse, or want to be nurses so they quit lacrosse. We've really been able to marry both of those here."
That legacy of nursing was already apparent to Griffin and Flynn, who have been in contact with a number of their former teammates also working in the field since graduation including Dana Davis '18 and Kerri Sayrafe '18.
For Silva, figuring out a way to keep the pair around for one more season as both student-athletes and nurses was as vital to their legacy of success as anything they've accomplished on the field.
"To have a pair of girls like those two that say I want to come back for a fifth year of eligibility, I want to be in the graduate nursing school, and can I still play Division I lacrosse and get my hours to still be a travel nurse when the year ends? How do you say no to that?" Silva said.
The final chapter of Griffin and Flynn's careers as student-athletes is set to begin in two weeks when the Colonials kick off the 2022 season at Ohio State.
Whether this season ends in another championship remains to be seen, however Griffin and Flynn have ensured that their legacy and the legacy of the Colonials lacrosse program lives on long after their final appearance on the field.
"This is an amazing program for letting us be nurses while letting us play lacrosse," Griffin said. "It's very rare to find a program that does it like this, and I'm just so honored and proud to be a part of it one more year."
