Moses Lake High School finds 'twinning' formula

MOSES LAKE - The game of soccer requires impeccable timing.

A team must work as a cohesive unit to have a successful offense and defense. The Moses Lake Chiefs benefit from having two players who constantly do everything together.

Twins Alysha and Stephanie Overland are two key players for a Chiefs soccer team that sits atop the Columbia Basin Big 9 with a record of 3-0.

The Overlands began playing organized soccer in third grade after Alysha convinced Stephanie play with her during recess.

"I used to play at recess all the time," Alysha said, "It just started to be fun and I tried to get everyone else to play and then [Stephanie] finally started to play and in third grade our parents finally put us in the actually program."

So far, Alysha has provided an offensive spark for the Chiefs scoring 12 goals in seven matches while Stephanie has proven to be the most versatile player on the team allowing head coach Ricardo Char to move her from position to position.

"As a coach, you just dream of having two sisters the same age and are superb athletes," he said. "It's hard to tell they're identical twins because they are two completely different players."

Char describes Alysha as the finisher while Stephanie is the team's best all-around player.

"You can put [Stephanie] anywhere and she will be successful," he said. "Her services and her pace outside are the best in the league, I think. She just has that knowledge of the game to know when to do things."

However, coaching identical twins can have its drawbacks. Stephanie and Alysha claimed that Char has had trouble telling them apart and will have to resort to shouting the color of their cleats to get their attention.

"They said that, huh," he said with a laugh.

Char, who also has twin sisters, said he was able to tell them apart as freshmen but doesn't know what has changed the past two years.

"I don't know what the deal is, but just recently I've been struggling to tell them apart," Char said. "I have no idea.

The Overlands use a self-described "twin telepathy" out on the field to know where each one is at and where the ball should be placed.

"I feel like we have a connection on the field," Stephanie said. "We kind of know where each other is all the time."

Alysha echoed her sister's sentiment and felt the too had some twin power.

"We know each other's speeds perfectly so we always know where to place the ball for each other," Alysha said.

Char explained one of Alysha's goals this year is to break the team's single season goal record of 23. But he knows, record or not, the success of the team is what's most important to Alysha and Stephanie.

"They're super hard on themselves in the fact that they're wanting to get better and do the best that they can," Char said. "And it's not for selfish reasons either. They just want to do everything possible to help their team win."