Spring sports siblings: seeing double

LAKE COUNTY - Editor's note: This is the third in a series of three articles about siblings participating together on spring sports teams.

Foutys

It's always gut-wrenching to hear that whistle blow and see a body curled up on the football field. As the athletic trainers and coaches run out from the sidelines, both players and fans stand alert to the "what ifs."

When the whistle blew for Polson's senior cornerback Trae Fouty during the Whitefish game earlier this year, one player in particular was on edge. Trae's twin brother, Ty, was on the field when it happened.

While they didn't know it right away, Trae had torn his ACL, anterior cruciate ligament. The injury would leave him sidelined for the remainder of his last season as a Pirate.

"I went through physical therapy, did all that fine," Trae said. "I went back to practice, planted, and just blew it out. I felt burning in the back of my knee."

That's when he knew it was going to be a long road to recovery. After going through re-constructive surgery in the beginning of January, Trae waited four months to hear his doctor's "OK" to start the track and field season, which was already well underway.

"I was doing drills the whole season," the pole-vaulter said.

Ready to go, but with limited time to catch up to the curve, Trae turned in several strong performances, highlighted with a one-three podium finish at the Divisional meet behind his brother, Ty.

Also a pole-vaulter through and through, Ty said, for the most part, his senior track season was everything he wanted it to be. As the Pirates' top vaulter, he led one of the event's strongest contingents of any school in the state.

"I just wanted it so I went harder in practice, focused on every little step and what I needed to do better," he said.

Ty flew over 13-feet, a personal record, to win the Divisional event. He hit the same mark during his sophomore season for his best state finish, which was a fifth place medal. The last two years, however, he said he hasn't performed his best at state, clearing 12-6 and placing just out of the medals as a senior. Luckily, he should have plenty of opportunities to improve at Southern Oregon where he plans to study civil engineering. He and his brother hope to walk on to the track and field team together.

Trae turned in an impressive 12-6 for a No. 3 finish behind his brother at Divisionals in his abbreviated senior season. For a guy who's already suffered about eight sports-related injuries, it's no surprise that Trae will study physical therapy next year. You could say his misfortunes inspired him on this future career path. "All of them did," he said.

The boys' cousin, Strohm Fouty, attends Southern Oregon University and invited them out for a visit.

"We just liked it," Ty said. "It's a really nice place, kinda like here with a lake and a ski mountain just a couple minutes away. It just fit."

When not studying, wrestling, tackling or vaulting, the Foutys keep busy outdoors and in the garage. They enjoy snow-boarding at Blacktail and working on cars with their grandfather who has stock cars and a road runner.

Recently, they teamed up to rebuild a 1972 Plymouth Satellite for their senior project.

"Grandpa bought the car about six years ago and we were planning on doing something with it, but never did," Trae said. "He helped us with a lot of it, showed us what to do."

Gutted and re-built from the ground up, their new whip now shines with highlight blue paint and black striped decals.

The paint, Trae said, was the catalyst of the only real fight the boys ever had in more than 200 hours of project labor spread across about six months from November to early May.

"He won that one," Trae smiled.

Battles aside, both agreed that having a twin brother has only helped them succeed in sports, and in life.

"It just pushes you," Ty said.

"It's always a competition between us," Trae added.

During their sophomore year of wrestling, coaches Bob and Bill Owen started keeping the two apart because the competition was too fierce.

"We'll go live for like 30 seconds and then that's long enough, it always turns into a fist fight," Trae said.

While aggressions are often quick to rise, they are also quick to fall between brothers.

"You forget about it in like a couple hours," Ty said.

This year in wrestling, Trae helped the whole team, even if he couldn't compete.

"I helped with moves, tried to tell them what to do," he said.

An assistant coach of sorts, Trae said he learned a lot more about the sport by working along side coaches Bob and Bill Owen.

Ty said it was hard to watch his brother sit on the sideline for his senior season, but he was grateful for his constant support.

"It helped me out," he said. "He was there for all my matches."

Their mother, Amy Burland, had a front row seat to the ups and downs of the boys' senior year.

"To see Trae helping Ty become a better athlete, that connection was super to see," she said. "It was awesome to see him take that role."

In football, the Foutys both played the position of corner. At first, they even played on the same side of the field.

"We just dominated that one side of the field most of the time," Ty said. "We communicated better. I knew he would be there, I knew if I was covering my man that he was on his."

That kind of reliability is something the Foutys will never be without.

"One tackle in a football game, I wrapped a kid up and [Trae] came up and just "tee-ed" on him," said Ty.

And at that moment, he said, more than any other, Ty was thankful to have his good friend, and brother, by his side.

Blevins

While many high schoolers celebrate lazy summer days, Dawn and Danny Blevins barely slow down. The incoming junior twins from Charlo take athletic and academic involvement to the tee.

Each competes in three sports, the 4-H Club and are on the honor roll. They attend church every Sunday and help with Vacation Bible School. Dawn baby-sits while Danny earns his extra cash changing pipe and doing yard work for the neighbors. Last week, he returned from football camp in Butte before heading to Missouri with Dawn and the rest of Charlo's shop class contingent for the National SkillsUSA competition.

It would seem to outsiders that the Blevins twins are two peas-in-a-pod, but according to their mother, Rose, they're nothing alike.

"The funny part is, Danny and Dawn are just total opposites," she said. "[If it's a homework assignment], Dawn works really hard to get hers done and stays up late to get it done. Danny... well..."

Their varied approaches to time management does come in handy sometimes, too. If not driving to the net for a lay-up, or toeing the starting line on the track, you could find the Blevins hard at work at home where they raise steers for 4-H.

Raising steers takes up a lot of valuable time in a students' schedule. There's feeding morning and night, trimming and shaving, halter breaking and weighing, this continuous responsibility is something with which the Blevins are familiar. Afterall, they've done it since they were twelve, they live on a ranch and the steers they raise are picked from their family's own herd.

"We help each other out," Dawn said. "But once it comes to the show ring, it's competition."

"Then, it's pretty much, ‘one for all,'" Danny added.

The money they earn when they sell the animal at the Lake County Fair in August goes straight into their college fund, Rose said.

Dawn, a three-sport, varsity letter winner her freshman and sophomore years, made volleyball All-Conference Honorable Mention as the school's go-to setter in 2009.

She was All-Conference Honorable Mention in Lady Vikings Basketball this year too, and made the state podium in track and field for her leg of the silver medal winning four-by-400-meter relay.

"He pushes me," Dawn, who also runs the 400 and 800, said.

Danny, mainly a thrower of the shot put, javelin and discus, said, "It's fifty-fifty. I could stand alone, but it's nice having the other."

An offensive/defensive lineman at heart, Danny said he mainly does track and field to build strength and speed for football and basketball. Older brother, Houston, graduated Charlo High School this year. Being the younger boy, Danny said he is more competitive with his brother than his sister, at least in sports.

"We raced once and he beat me," Danny said. "But, that was my freshman year and I wasn't really ready for the sport."

Now, he'll be ready for anything after sailing with the Vikings to a second place state finish in track and field and two stand-out seasons in basketball and football.

When they get upset after losing a game or having a poor performance on the track, Dawn said, "Sometimes we take it out on each other." Or, Danny said, "We just don't talk about it."

As anyone with a sibling can attest, there are both pros and cons to sharing the lime-light with someone else.

"Sometimes they expect you to be as good as the other," Dawn said.

"Sometimes you just want to be on your own," Danny said.

However, this winter, when the Vikings' boys' and girls' basketball teams made the Divisional playoffs, it was a lot more fun, the Blevins said, to share the experience with someone else.

Arlee

Throwing coach Scott Palmer knows a thing or two about coaching siblings. Sports are a family affair in Arlee, but Palmer believes that it's not about having the same last name, but the overall unity that having siblings brings to his teams.

"They have someone they can rely on," he said. "The whole team has become a family in that aspect."

Nelsons

Becca is the older Nelson twin, by six minutes.

"He always tells me how to do things and we fight all the time," she said. "Every time we have a good throw, he'll put it in my face or I'll put it in his face, but when I get mad, it makes me throw better."

It seems that in every sport they do, from pee-wee baseball to high school track and field, the Nelsons, now entering their junior year, end up playing similar roles.

Becca was the first to follow her older sister Veronica's lead into the throwing events, while Sam stuck to running and long distance.

This year, however, he really found his stride in the field.

"Oh, there's definitely a rivalry," Sam said. "We both push each other. I push her more."

On their birthday, both athletes shined at the Divisional meet and made it to state, Sam in the javelin and Becca in the discus.

"He says he beats me all the time, but I get pretty close, especially for a girl," she said. "I'm the one who actually taught him everything."

"She tells me off when I'm doing something stupid," Sam said.

But, both still agree, it helps having a sibling on the team.

"I think I'd be a lot shy-er," Becca said. "Not have as much confidence."

Meidingers

Rising juniors Rachelle and Aspen Meidinger offer Coach Palmer even more depth in the Scarlets' throwing arsenal.

"We're like the strongest girls in the high school and we're only sophomores," Rachelle said, who is the younger twin by 30 minutes. "Our older sister was kinda buff, but we outgrew her."

While having a sibling on the team can be positive in many ways, it is not always so.

The Meidingers are proof that in sports, identical twins competing in identical, individual events can have its challenges too. Solid competitors all year long, the girls tacked on valuable points in team scoring. They often swapped places with each other from meet to meet.

"When I throw good, she doesn't do as well," Rachelle said. "Last year, there was more pressure, but this year, I do my thing and she does her thing."

The girls started out using the same throwing technique, but according to Aspen, it just became too competitive. Now, she does a spin throw, where Rachelle has developed a hybrid, integrating a more open power-throwing-type stance and a spin.

"They've always been competitive with each other, but it brings out the best in them," Palmer said.

Both girls turned in their best performances of the year at the Divisional meet, smashing the 30-foot barrier in the shot put.

Rachelle was even able to crack the top five, earning her first trip to the state meet with a throw of 32-6. Aspen earned a medal for her sixth placing mark of 30-10. She was just shy of Drummond's Patti Brown who threw 31-0 1/4 for the fifth and final ticket to state.

"It's very competitive... we want to beat each other," Aspen said. "I was using a different spin and throwing over 34, but I scratched a lot too. I've just got to get everything down."

With two more years to go, there's still plenty of time for the Meidingers to improve technique, gain strength and battle it out for No. 1.

"We always talk about it," Palmer said. "You've got to compete for yourself and focus on improving yourself."