thursday, june 2, 2011Tan & Cardinal12 sportsSoccer twins look back on first year at OtterbeinWhether on the field or off the field, competition is a recipe for success for twins Tyler and Dylan Stegall

By Mike CirelliCopy Editor

photo by kristen sappkickin’ around: Identical twins Dylan and Tyler Stegall are alike in many ways, often confusing teammates and acquaintances.

They’ve got the same mohawks. The same piercings. The same athletic attire. And, unless you look really closely, the same face. Freshmen Dylan and Tyler Stegall are about as identical as identical twins can get. “Sometimes people say I’m nicer than Dylan,” Tyler said. “I don’t know if I’m nicer, I think it’s just Dylan’s pretty blunt, and maybe some of the things he says can come off as mean.” It always takes at least a couple days before an acquaintance can tell the two apart. Even their coaches and teammates at Otterbein initially called them by their last names, their jersey numbers or simply “Twin.” The brothers have been playing on the same soccer team since fourth grade. They also took the same classes throughout high school and maintained the same high GPA — that is, until Tyler took an extra class and bumped his up by .005. “Everything is a little competition,” Dylan said. “I think it’s made us better overall, just because we always have some-one there who pushes us to do our best.”

Both twins constantly motivate each other to improve. Sometimes this motiva-tion comes from one firmly telling the oth-er he’s slacking off. Other times it comes from not wanting to lose to the other one. In this way, they maintain a sort of symbiotic relationship, constantly depend-ing on the other one to elevate their own individual standards. “I think there’s a level of understanding between twins that you don’t get between other people,” head soccer coach Gerry D’Arcy said. “They know how each are going to move on the field, they know each other’s preferences and then they have that extra ingredient of being twins. They know what each other is about, how they will react in certain situations.” Tyler said, “We compete with each other to a certain extent. But as far as playing in actual games outside of practice, I think we both want the same thing — and that’s to win. We try and do the best to ensure we’re both performing at the highest level.” The twins inherited this skill from their dad. “He was the same way,” Tyler said. “He always pushed us to be the best that we could, so we push each other quite often.” Figuratively and literally, as it turns out. The two don’t frequently fight with each

other, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t hap-pened once or twice. “It had all been building up,” Tyler said. “We were aggravated at the team, it wasn’t a good practice, one of us made a mistake and called the other out on it. … I wouldn’t necessarily call it a fistfight; it was more a wrestling match.”

Dylan said, “It had to be broken up, and we were sent home after that.” Each twin is able to predict where the other will be on the field at any given time. Though one may be tempted to call it twintuition, Dylan and Tyler both said such perception isn’t any dif-ferent than that of team-mates who have played together for a long time. “A successful, really

good team always knows what each other is going to do, they know each other well, and that’s already tied in with Tyler and I,” Dylan said. “We know each other like the back of our hands because we’ve been with each other our entire lives.” Dylan can think of times when he could count on Tyler to be exactly where he needs him to be, but he can also think of times when he could count on other team-mates for the same thing. In the fall, the soccer team will try to avenge last season’s 3-14-2 record. It might have a shot at the OAC title this

year if each player sharpens his individual strengths over summer, Dylan said. Tyler said, “Once we get our feet wet in the conference tournament, maybe in the next couple years, we can think about winning the conference tournament and getting into the NCAA tournament.” Soccer aside, there are some key differ-ences between the two. Tyler plays guitar, for example. “I love playing guitar almost too much,” he said. “I don’t need anybody to listen, I don’t care if I’m bad or good — it’s just something I enjoy to do.” Their majors are different, too. Dylan is majoring in sports management and wants to be a coach when he’s older. On the other hand, Tyler, who loves numbers, is a busi-ness major and hopes to work in an office. They don’t know if their different career paths will keep them living in the same town, though they’d like to live relatively close. “You always have someone there for you,” Tyler said. “He’s like a best friend and he’s always there. I’ve never felt (lonely). It’s definitely a blessing.” Dylan said, “He’s been such an impor-tant part of my life. I don’t know what I would do without him. Obviously, I’m going to have to live without him, and I’m able to do that completely. But it’s nice to have him around, someone that’s always there, that knows you up and down, that knows if something’s wrong.” t&c

“They know each other’s preferences, and then they have that extra ingredi-ent of being twins.”

Gerry D’Arcyhead soccer coach