Three sets of twins get double takes from area teams

Stacy Hughes claims her starting back-court hasn’t tried to get involved in twin shenanigans.

The Carolina Forest coach believes identical twins Britney and Whitney Burgess have not taken part in any of the normal scams. It’s exactly what the sisters want her to think.

Tonight, the Burgesses may be playing their final game together when the Panthers complete their regular-season against Conway, and for all the memories of their time at Carolina Forest and playing for Hughes, it’s not hard to recall their favorite trick.

“I like to run, so whenever Whitney has to run suicides, I run them for her,” Britney said. “We just have to switch jerseys. I don’t think [Hughes] can tell us apart.”

The potential for pulling the old switcheroo, however, isn’t localized to Carolina Forest. This year, three sets of identical twins have graced local basketball courts and wrestling mats.

Seniors Derek and Codi Rothermel established themselves as two of the area’s best wrestlers in just one season at St. James. North Myrtle Beach sophomores Josh and Matt Lindsey, also in their first year in the area, secured crucial spots in the starting lineup for coach Frank Moorhead’s basketball team.

And as the winter sports season winds down, the three sets of twins all had significant impacts on the identities of their respective teams.

Two acclimating as one

In the case of both the Rothermels and the Lindseys – the St. James wrestlers and the North Myrtle Beach hoopsters – they spent a good portion of 2011 going through a seemingly altogether familiar process.

Codi and Derek Rothermel grew up between two areas of Pennsylvania. When their father, Barry, found a better job, they moved to Murrells Inlet in April. The mid-semester transfer served as both a blessing and an annoyance.

“It was definitely not easy,” Derek said. “You come in there, pretty much knowing nobody. You get into class, and it’s not with any of your friends. You’re going into school not knowing anybody. They’re like, ‘Hey, new kid,’ and that’s about it. They already had their friends.”

It wasn’t all bad.

At the same time classmates were keeping their own routine, the Rothermels decided they would, too. They set their mind on the mat, earning spots on a South Carolina travelling wrestling team for the summer. By the time the high school season started in November, the brothers realized they had a shot at making some noise on the local wrestling scene.

Derek finished the regular season 32-1 and ranked No. 1 in Class AAA by SCMat.com in the 152-pound weight class. Codi was 36-0 and ranked No. 2 at 138 pounds. The brothers also helped St. James to the state semifinals, where they were defeated by Chapin on Wednesday.

Not bad for a couple of kids who originally took up the sport out of default.

Derek said the two were “atrocious” at basketball, and in sixth grade, he started wrestling. A year later, Codi joined the ranks. Soon, they were practicing on their own almost daily, improving side-by-side.

Eventually, those brotherly battles had to stop, though.

“We never really finish a match,” Codi said. “In the room, no one scores, or it ends up coming to fists. It’s that rivalry. You don’t want to lose to your brother.”

The two met in an open tournament just one time in their careers. After three rounds with no scoring – the brothers knew every move the other was going to make – the ref halted the match and decided to flip a coin to determine a winner.

Neither says they definitively know who won.

The adjustment period to a new area for Matt and Josh Lindsey was similar, although the sophomores had the luxury of coming in at a younger age.

The pair split their childhood between Radford, Va., and Daytona Beach, Fla., before moving to North Myrtle Beach over the summer.

It wasn’t the Moorhead’s first foray into dealing with twins. Moorhead has twin brothers who are five years older than he is. He remembers them switching jerseys at halftime when one was in foul trouble.

Moorhead also recognized that his current players possessed slightly different skills. Josh is a better shooter, Matt the better passer.

“We put a lot of pressure on them as sophomores,” Moorhead said. “They’ve handled it as well as we could have expected.”

Both earned a starting nod, and it helped their chances of speeding up the process of getting used to a new school.

“It gets kind of old,” Matt Lindsey said of the questions he received early on asking which brother he was.

“When we first move somewhere, I get that a lot. People don’t normally don’t ask questions the more we’re around.”

A full season of playing varsity ball helped, too. The Chiefs were officially eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday and finished up the season Thursday against Myrtle Beach, but it won’t be the end of the Lindseys’ run at North Myrtle Beach.

The duo is already planning ahead.

“I think we’re a big part of this team,” Josh Lindsey said. “When we’re seniors, we’ll have to step up and play harder than we do now.”

Are you related?

Back at Carolina Forest, Whitney and Britney Burgess have a stock answer for when people ask them the question, one that comes “20 times a day.”

“We tell them we’re first cousins,” Whitney Burgess said.

The smart-aleck response comes from years of getting asked if they’re related. But that’s not the only question they get, although some are more understandable.

First, the Burgess sisters, despite playing a game typically dominated by height, both stand under 5-feet. Next, somewhat unusually, they’re in different grades. Both scenarios lead to inquiries of what class they’re in.

Britney is listed on the roster as a senior, but in reality, she is only a junior. The “younger” sister – by one minute, technically – fell behind in middle school. She’s all but caught up despite the fact she’s been in high school for less than three years.

Sometime soon, she’ll make a decision whether to graduate high school early or come back for another year. Either way, there’s a strong possibility tonight’s game against rival Conway will be her final one with Britney, who is graduating in the spring regardless.

Like the Rothermels and Lindseys, the experience of playing together is something the Burgess sisters deemed invaluable.

“It takes you a long way in basketball,” Britney Burgess said. “What I can’t do, she can. What she can’t do, I can. So we work on it together.”

More than likely, that’s about to stop, at least at a competitive level.

Whitney Burgess has received some interest from lower-level colleges, including NCAA Division-II Tusculum in Tennessee. If college basketball pans out for her, it will seemingly take Britney at least another year to reach that level, if at all.

What’s not mistakable, though, is what the girls have meant to the Panthers’ program over the last three-plus years.

“They get after it. They play with their heart,” Hughes said. “They’re defensive specialists. I wouldn’t want them guarding me. They’re like two little gnats.

“Neither of them have huge numbers, but they do so much for us.”

Whitney Burgess averages six points, four assists, four rebounds and three steals per game. Britney adds four points, three assists and three steals per game.

Hughes, though, is the first to say those stats are likely wrong. During the heat of games, keeping track of the two smallest players on the court isn’t the easiest thing to do.

The fact that they’re identical twins makes tracking their tangible contributions that much harder.

Playing together, though? That was the easy part.

“The twins thing, we read each other’s minds,” Britney Burgess said. “On any basketball team, unless you’re twin sisters, you never really have anybody on the court that can read your mind.”