Kelly Grills, a graduate of Stonington High School and the Coast Guard Academy, was underway aboard the USCGC Seneca, somewhere off the shore of Florida she believes, when she got an email from her younger brother Tyler.

“All capital letters. 'I GOT IN!'” said Kelly Grills, who has been stationed in Boston since graduating from the academy in 2014, of her brother's choice to follow her career path. “I never expected for him to be interested. Once I was there, he became good friends with a lot of my friends. I'm really happy for him. It was absolutely an awesome experience. He's way more ready (than I was).”

Tyler Grills, a senior at Stonington and a captain on the boys' lacrosse team, became the Bears' all-time leading scorer earlier this season and now holds team records for goals in a single game (8, tying the mark), single season (62, 2014) and career (167).

Stonington will play in the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Waterford High School, having earned the No. 2 seed. The Bears (11-5 overall, 7-1 to win the ECC Small Division) will meet No. 3 Waterford in the second game of a semifinal doubleheader. No. 1 East Lyme will face No. 4 Bacon Academy at 5 p.m.

Stonington also qualified for the Class S state tournament.

Grills plans to continue his lacrosse career at Coast Guard, which played as a varsity sport for the first time this year under coach Ray LaForte.

Grills, however, will attend Marion (Ala.) Military Institute for a year prior to the Coast Guard. He leaves July 20 for a two-week orientation at Coast Guard before heading for Alabama, where he is required to attain a certain grade point average to guarantee his spot at the academy. He would become a member of Coast Guard's Class of 2020.

“I saw the experience she had there, all the friends she made; it really drew my attention,” Grills said of his sister. “I've seen how hard she's always worked and how she's always had her mind set on what she wanted to do. She's still working very hard. I really looked up to her.

“I was in the eighth grade when she went there and I thought, 'That seems cool.' At the end of my sophomore year, with my mom and dad I sat down and talked about colleges. From that point on, I knew.”

One area in which Tyler didn't care to emulate his older sister was the sport.

While Kelly was an all-state shortstop for the Stonington softball team and went on to captain the team at Coast Guard — in addition to being The Day's All-Area Field Hockey Player of the Year as a junior in high school — Tyler determined fairly early that he “wasn't very good” at baseball. His maternal uncle, Brendan Carney, who both played and coached the sport, suggested lacrosse.

Grills went on to become a two-time All-ECC Small Division selection as a right-handed attack (this year's team will be announced this week), playing on teams which reached the Class S tournament semifinals his first two seasons.

He became the Bears' all-time scoring leader on May 2 with three goals against Hand, giving him 143 for his career. That eclipsed the mark of 141 set by 2006 graduate Paul Mariani. Last Thursday, Grills scored five goals in Stonington's 14-12 victory at Bacon Academy to clinch the ECC Small Division title.

The Bears, under first-year head coach Dean Patty, have won five of their last six games after starting out 4-3.

“I absolutely love being out on the field. I'm thankful to be in the record book and be remembered there,” Grills said. “In the beginning (of this season), it wasn't like we had that connection. We had almost a whole new defense, a new goalie. Now we're playing great all connecting together, playing our best lacrosse at the most important time of the season.

“(Against Bacon), that was a great win. We had our backup goalie (Zach Christina) because our goalie got injured and he played great. We were playing on a grass field and that's always a big change. We came out pretty flat at the beginning (down 7-2 after one quarter); our offense wasn't controlling the ball. But after that we really came out strong.”

Grills is a member of the National Honor Society and along with fellow Stonington senior Elisha Benoit heads the Twitter account “ECC Fans of the Year,” a fun way to keep the school community up to date on Stonington athletics.

“He's, like, famous now in Stonington,” Kelly Grills, an ensign, said of her brother in a telephone interview this week from Charleston, S.C., where she's attending a five-week Boarding Officer Course. “He's so naturally smart. I was a big studier. He can not study and go in and get straight A's.

“… Really, you don't remember the hard parts (at Coast Guard) as much as you remember the fun parts once you realize it's the best place in the world for you. Probably graduation, I will never forget that day, being with my friends; in my whole life it's by far the best day. And getting to go to work, that would be my favorite part, too.

“(Tyler) is just so ready to get started. He's so ready to take it on.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday