Double trouble

Pease twins propel Idaho Soccer

Twins are nothing new in the world of college sports. Stanford had the Lopez twins, Kansas had the Morris twins and now Idaho has the Pease twins.

The Bend, Oregon, natives came to Idaho under former coach Peter Showler. But that was all coincidental he said, as he was looking at them each individually. They just happened to end up at the same place. Alyssa Pease plays forward for the Vandals, while Amanda Pease plays defender.

His interest in the two came from the first time he saw them at a tournament in their home state of Oregon.

“It was a blizzard going with howling winds and the pair of them just had something that I really liked in terms of their demeanor and character,” said Showler, who recruited the twins and coached them in 2013 before resigning this past winter. “Both are quality athletes and both are great kids, so I felt Idaho would be a great fit for them.”

Showler wasn’t the only coach recruiting both of the twins, but he knew he was getting two great people and players to help build the program when they committed, he said.

“We weren’t saying we had to come together, but we just happened to be looking at all of the same schools,” Alyssa said.

When looking at the sisters, they don’t necessarily look like twins. Amanda, the taller of the two sisters at 5-foot-9, has bright blonde hair, whereas Alyssa, who stands at 5-foot-4, has a dirtier blonde color.

Despite these physical differences, the fraternal twins have had to deal with their fair share of manufactured similarities by people in their lives, which can get annoying, they both said.

“They are like ‘oh that little piece of hair is totally the same’ and we’re like, ‘you don’t have to say we look alike,'” Alyssa said.

The sisters grew up doing everything together from the time they were little, with the exception of Alyssa’s involvement with orchestra and Amanda’s with track. Amanda only did one year of orchestra and Alyssa didn’t do much track, Amanda said.

Also contrary to what some may think, the sisters do not feel each other’s pain nor can they read each other’s thoughts, which is something they have been asked frequently by teammates, Amanda said.

This became a bigger deal when the twins both had to deal with the same turf toe injury, and the team joked with them about them being twins as the reason for the same injuries.

“It is more like we have been together so we can finish each other’s sentences, but that is a normal thing with siblings, it isn’t anything extraordinary,” Alyssa said.

When the twins were being recruited in 2013, Showler said the hard part was just getting the Pease twins onto campus. After that, the location and people to the athletic department drew them in, he said.

“It is kind of an ugly drive from here to Oregon, so both of us were like ‘oh no this isn’t happening,'” Alyssa said. “But then we got here, and it was September when we came to visit, and it was really pretty and we really enjoyed walking around campus. And it kind of reminds us of home a little bit, so that was a big selling point.”

Along with the twins being great players, they are even better people, Showler said. When coaching at the Division I level you need not only phenomenal athletes with the drive to succeed, but you also need good people, and both Amanda and Alyssa embodied that, he said.

Even though Showler resigned after their freshmen season, that doesn’t mean he is any less of a Pease sisters fan.

“It was a pleasure to coach them,” Showler said. “They are both great kids and both of them brought different factors to the game, but both were complimentary to what we were trying to achieve at Idaho.”

Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]