Growing up, senior Macy and freshman Marlee Chafin could always be found in their driveway playing volleyball together. The court has replaced their driveway now, as they are both on the same high school team playing the same position.
“That’s something we really bonded over (over) the years,” Macy said. “It’s really gotten us closer.”
However, the Chafin sisters are only one of many siblings at SHS that are involved in the same sport.
Sophomores Andreas and Alex Poulakis are twins on the SHS football team who have been playing football together since eighth grade.
“I (definitely got) more competitive,” Andreas said.
The two pairs of siblings, now fully into their respective sport’s season with each other, agree that being on the same team has brought them together, but it can come with some challenges.
Alex says that it can be annoying having a twin brother in general, but it makes him more of a competitive person.
Macy and Marlee, on the other hand, love having each other on the team.
Macy says that she has been waiting for this year in particular for a while. When she was in seventh grade, she did the math to figure out that she and Marlee could be on the same high school team for a year.
After this realization, she persuaded Marlee to play.
“I did the math and was like ‘okay, listen, if you play and I start playing, we can both play together my senior year,’” Macy said.
Marlee and Macy agree that so far this year, it has been fun when they are out on the court together in a varsity game.
In the end, Marlee agrees that playing together has brought them closer.
“We had a stronger bond,” Marlee said.
Macy says whenever they are bored at home and it’s not raining, they can always go outside and pepper, which is controlled volleying between two people, or play outside.
“We used to just be sisters, but now, I think volleyball has really made us become each other’s best friend,” Macy said. “We can really go to each other for everything.”
On the other hand, the Poulakis brothers dislike some things about being siblings on the same team.
“I don’t like being compared to each other,” Andreas said.
Both of the twins are better at different things, so it can be irritating to be compared to each other all the time.
However, the twins agree it has some positives.
“It’s helped us play on the same level, and we don’t want to be the same, so we both try to be better than the other,” Andreas said.
However, since their first year playing high school football was only their second year ever of playing football, besides some flag football when they were very little, having a brother made some things easier.
“I think it helps having a brother, just in general,” Andreas said.
