Siblings Turn Berry Athletics Into a Family Affair
By Matthew Stokes
BerryVikings.com Staff Writer
Sibling rivalries can bring out the best as well as the worst in people. For some, the competitiveness between their family members not only extends to places like home and school but sports as well.
No less than 24 pairs of siblings have played intercollegiate sports at Berry since 2001, most of whom played at separate times. There are exceptions though, such as rising sophomore baseball players Austin and Preston Neely.
The identical twins began playing tee-ball when they were five years old, coincidentally for a team called the Twins.
Playing together from age five to the present day has afforded the two infielders some unique opportunities, some of which they declined.
The twins decided when they were underclassmen at Carl Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Ga., that they wanted to continue being teammates as long as they could.
“We were open to the idea of going to different schools, but it just never worked out like that,” Austin Neely said. “Nobody ever wanted just one of us.”
In addition to being recruited by Berry, they also considered Samford (Ala.) University and North Georgia College and State University.
Following their senior season of football at Harrison, In the Game High School Sports Magazine approached the pair for an article profiling them before the school’s 2010 baseball team started its campaign that spring. They declined the offer.
“It just wasn’t worth it to try to put spotlight on
us for no reason,” Preston Neely said.
Several months later the pair looked wise for their choice as
Harrison swept Lassiter High School in two games, claiming the 2010
Georgia Class AAAAA State Championship.
“We won state senior year. That’s where our spotlight should’ve been on,” Preston Neely said. “To this day I’m glad we didn’t do that interview.”
When the Neelys started attending Berry in Aug., 2010, they joined a program full of legacy athletes with their own stories to share.
Assistant coach Shane West played with his younger brother,
Shelby, for Berry during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Their coach
those two seasons was David Beasley, Berry’s head baseball
coach from 1998 to the present day. Beasley said that the Wests
were the first sibling duo that he coached at Berry.
Coach West said one of the best moments of his entire playing
career period took place during his final season as a Viking in
1999. Shelby pitched a no-hitter in a doubleheader against Shorter
College (presently Shorter University) while Shane manned third
base.
“Everybody talks about being on the field for a no-hitter and trying to make the plays. I know I made several that, in the back of your mind you’re thinking, ‘This is a no-hitter.’ Not only that, it was my brother,” Shane said. “I didn’t want to be the one to screw that up if I didn’t make the play.”
One of Shane West’s teammates in the late 1990s was Josh
Hopper, whose younger brother Nicholas would also later play for
the Vikings and currently works in Berry’s Physical
Plant.
Nicholas Hopper said he once hit against his older brother in a
Berry alumni game during. Josh played two years in the New York
Mets’ minor league system so Nicholas said he could still
pitch well at the time.
“I stepped up to the plate, and it was like a Shorter-Berry game,” Nicholas Hopper said. “Everybody in the stands stood up and was either yelling for my brother or yelling for me.”
That sibling showdown ended the first time with Nicholas hitting “a darn good ball” to right-centerfield and an alumni outfielder making a diving catch, much to the younger sibling’s disappointment.
“On my way back to the dugout he said, ‘Better luck next time, kid,’ or something smart aleck,” Nicholas said.
The second faceoff proved to be eventful as well. Josh struck out Nicholas looking, but the younger Hopper said he is still on protest to this day.
“His catcher had to drop to one knee and frame the ball in the dirt, [and] they rung me up,” Nicholas said. “And it was nothing, but his catcher making him look good.”
In addition to the Wests and the Hoppers, rising sophomore left-handed pitcher Casey Coats is a legacy athlete as his older brother, Tyler, preceded him in going through Beasley’s program.
Casey said watching Tyler hit his first home run (a grand slam) at Berry sticks out in his memory as well hearing and seeing how the program was such a close-knit group. The family atmosphere of Beasley’s program was a major selling point in Casey choosing Berry.
Beasley said the younger siblings that enter Berry's program can find themselves at a distinct advantage when compared to the other freshmen. He said these players have a great resource in an older brother as far what to do and what is expected of them on his team. He said these student-athletes enter his program knowing to not procrastinate, to have good study habits and to do the workout program, among other things.
“Those guys that had brothers come through- they know
that,” Beasley said. “They don’t have to go
through that hard process.”
Though the baseball team has seen its fair share of brothers come
through, other sports have also had a number of siblings play
either together or separately.
Rising senior midfielder Reid Popple had the opportunity to play an entire soccer season with his older brother, Ben, when Reid was a freshman and Ben was a senior in the fall of 2008. Reid said he remembers his brother yelling at him when they both were on the field during games, which the younger sibling found funny. The younger Popple said his brother’s yelling as a means of communication came to mind when he recalled a game that fall against Auburn Montgomery.
“It was a pretty intense game,” Reid Popple said. “The yelling on his part came into play a lot more than usual for that game.”
Both Popple brothers started that game, and the Vikings won.
Even newer additions to Berry’s athletics program have experienced sibling fever.
Women’s lacrosse, a first-year program in the spring of 2011, featured senior Anya Dziurzynski as well as her freshman sister, Kristan. The Vikings finished the inaugural season with an 8-7 record, and the sisters placed first and third, respectively in total points. The season was the first the two sisters had ever played together.
Their first game together, a scrimmage against Shorter University, still makes them both laugh to this day.
“[The public announcer] would say ‘Goal by Dziurzynski. Assisted by Dziurzynski.’ That sticks out a lot. It was really funny,” Kristan said. “We just laughed and smiled. I’ll remember that forever.”
“It definitely made me laugh too, especially the first few times it took them to actually pronounce [Dziurzynski] right,” Anya said.
Facilitating the growth of various sibling student-athletes has given the coaches a unique perspective on the matter.
In reflecting upon the different pairs of siblings that he has coached, Beasley said all of them are absolutely different.
“A lot of times you would not know that they were siblings unless you recruited them,” Beasley said.
Shane West said playing with his younger brother for two years as well as coaching twins like the Neelys has made him realize that it is a situation similar to coaching any other player.
“Coach them as individuals,” Shane said. “Don’t always group them together.”
SIBLING STUDENT-ATHLETES AT BERRY COLLEGE IN THE PAST TEN-PLUS YEARS*
Baseball
• Casey & Tyler Coats
• Clay & Lance Culpepper
• Bill & Trey Dixon
• Josh & Nicholas Hopper
• Austin & Preston Neely
• Shane & Shelby West
Basketball
• Jake & Zach Darling
• Deana & Mickey Duncan
• Alexa & Kayla Evans
Cross Country
• James & Thomas Clarke
Equestrian
• Jessica & Megan Gilker
Golf
• Blake & Lance Cone
• Jayne & Sam Curtis
• Blake & Jared Hall
Lacrosse
• Anya & Kristan Dziurzynski
Soccer
• Chris & Sarah Capati
• Jeff & Robin Dolbeer
• Heather & Hilary Hiland
• Rachael & Rebecca Ramsay
• Ben & Reid Popple
• Greg & Steve Young
Tennis
• Marcelo & Marina Lebrao
• Kendal & Kirstin Ruffner
Multi-Sport
• Matthew Rego (cross country/track) & Wil Rego
(lacrosse)
*This list does not include any surname changes for the above female student-athletes since each one’s respective graduation from Berry College.
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