‘It’s pretty special.’ Two Lexington high schools enjoying overload of soccer siblings.
It’s not unusual for a high school sports team to have siblings cycle through their program.
Twins? Sure.
Brothers or sisters a year or more apart? Definitely.
Four different sets at two different schools all active at the same time?
C’mon, now.
Wednesday night, as Bryan Station visited Lafayette for a girls’ soccer match, each school fielded four sets of sisters and one set of cousins in their junior varsity-varsity doubleheader.
“It’s pretty special. I like it,” said Kennedy Crovo, the eldest of three Crovo sisters, about the Generals’ sibling dynamic. “I think it brings a sense of community.”
Bryan Station freshman Adrienn Arcure agreed with that sentiment. Her older sister, senior Audrey Greenberg, plays varsity.
“It’s great because after games all the JV sisters are watching the older sisters play varsity,” she said. “We all hang out. We all talk and watch the game and all have fun.”
While Lafayette won both games Wednesday night, for Bryan Station, the primary goal is to keep building the program. Not long ago, the Defenders didn’t have enough players for a junior varsity team. Now, they have 20 on JV. Family ties have been key.
“It definitely helps,” said Bryan Station Coach Stephanie Durbin. “The younger ones are bringing their friends in just like the older ones did. And it’s showing people that they want to be out here when the same families continue to be here.”
But sometimes, it’s not that easy, Durbin said.
“They act like sisters,” Durbin said. “... If they’ve been arguing that day, it’s very obvious. It’s obvious when they play against each other, too.”
But building a winning culture means coaches have to quickly construct a family-like connection among their players. It certainly doesn’t hurt if many of them are already family.
“I think it’s really fun,” Lafayette’s Ileanna Wilson said. “You see all the different personalities of everyone and they’re all family, so everyone’s just really close together.”
In addition to Adrienn Arcure and her stepsister Audrey Greenberg, Durbin has senior Aline Sandoval Cano and seventh-grader Litzy Sandoval, senior Abigail Mingo and eighth-grader Sophia Mingo and sophomore Sofia Haggard and seventh-grader Evy Haggard. Plus, there’s seventh-grader Lila Gonzalez and eighth-grader Mariana Gonzalez who are cousins who live together and thus treat each other like sisters. Junior team manager Angela Sanchez and eighth-grader Alondra Sanchez are also cousins.
Lafayette Coach Taylor Roden has the all-varsity Crovo sisters: Kennedy, a junior, Kitty, a sophomore and Chloe, a freshman. There are three Reeds and two Dinhs on junior varsity. Addie and Isabella Reed are sophomores and Charley Reed is a freshman; Isabelle and Madelyn Dinh are sophomores. Then there’s junior Ileana Wilson on varsity and freshman Olena Wilson on JV.
Keeping all of those siblings straight is a challenge, Roden said.
“Ileana lets me know when I mess up.” Roden said, smiling. “The others are still, I think, a little bit too scared to correct me, and they just answer when I say any of their names. But Ileana will absolutely shut me down if I call her Olena.”
Sisters on both teams acknowledged it’s difficult to keep home issues at home and playing issues on the field, but felt overall it’s more of a positive to have their siblings playing the same sport.
“I think they build each other up and help push each other,” Ileanna Wilson said. “Because they’ll each be your biggest critic but also be your biggest cheerleader.”
And for siblings of different ages, it’s a chance to play or practice with their big or little sister on the same field, wearing the same jersey, which is something not easily done outside of high school where club or recreational sports are divided by birth years.
“Being able to be part of the same team at the same time is really nice,” Bryan Station’s Abigail Mingo said.
Arcure thinks so, too.
“It’s great. We get to practice together. We get to talk when we’re here. I think it overall made us closer,” she said.
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