The numbers are staggering. Darien (Conn.) has won 20 state championships and has produced 61 All-Americans and 132 college players.
But there’s only one Chloe Humphrey.
Of all the outstanding players in Darien history, and there’s a lot of them, Humphrey is the best of them all, according to Hall of Fame coach Lisa Lindley.
“The reason I say that is she has all the intangibles,” Lindley said. “She has soft hands. She has an amazing shot. Her IQ is off the charts. She is not blazingly fast, but she’s quick and no one can cover her. You think you have her and then you don’t.”
Humphrey is the second Darien player to be named USA Lacrosse Northeast Girls’ Player of the Year (Caylee Waters, 2013) and the first to garner National Player of the Year honors in program history.
“It truly is an honor,” Humphrey said. “I think that the pride I have for this program really started from watching my sisters playing and watching Lisa on the sidelines for all these years. So, it really has motivated me throughout my entire career and that’s I think what has led to my success so far.”
Humphrey’s mother, Sarah, played lacrosse at Dartmouth. Her father, John, was a Hall of Fame basketball player at Middlebury College and her grandfather, John Otis, played baseball at Dartmouth and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers.
Chloe is the third Humphrey sister to garner All-American honors at Darien, following Nicole, who was a spark off the bench as a senior for national champion North Carolina this year, and Ashley, who set an NCAA record with 88 assists in a single season at Stanford in 2022.
“Nicole was a phenomenal athlete. She had speed. She had athleticism. She had her first step, her stick skills were good. And then Ashley is an amazing feeder, and she also developed her outside shot,” Lindley said. “If you take Ashley and you take Nicole, and you combine them, you get Chloe.”
Being the youngest of three lacrosse-playing sisters had its benefits. When Nicole and Ashley would return from camps with a new trick learned, Chloe would take to the backyard trying to perfect it.
Ashley and Chloe would watch Kayla Treanor highlights, study her moves and then work on them together.
But it was quickly learned all three Humphrey sisters couldn’t play together in the backyard.
“Someone will always go in crying or complaining that the other one hit them up,” Chloe said. “So, we definitely do it individually, but we share our love for each other. We’re just too competitive, and we can’t actually go against each other.”
While Nicole has left Chapel Hill to play at USC next year, Ashley is currently in the transfer portal. Is Chloe actively recruiting her sister?
“We have something going on, so we’ll see about that,” Chloe said. “But I’m hoping that she becomes a Tar Heel next year.”