Austin Smith
Sports Editor
Identical twin sisters Kayleigh and Amanda Marshall leave players on opposing teams seeing double.
The two sisters began playing soccer at the age of four and have played together ever since. The twins, like many others, are very close to each other and are almost inseparable. Head Coach Denise Lyons said, They are always together, even on bus rides. “Even though there are open seats [on the bus], where they could have a seat each to lie down and take a nap… the two of them were together,” Lyons said.
The chemistry that they share is something that can be an advantage for them on the field. Amanda said, “Some people say that we have twin telepathy on the field; we can get our passes to each other without even talking.”
Even though the Marshalls are siblings, there is no sibling rivalry unless they are playing against each other. Kayleigh said, “We’re competitive, but only if we are playing against each other. When we’re playing together there’s not really a competition.”
Twins can sometimes be tricky. Lyons said, “The last set of twins, one was a goalkeeper and one was a defender and one day at practice they switched uniforms and I was wondering why the goalkeeper wasn’t catching as many as she should.” Lyons said the Marshall twins are great to coach. “They’re wonderful. They’re very coachable, very smart players, they listen well, they’re just a pleasure to have on the team,” Lyons said.
Early on in the season Kayleigh had been dealing with a knee injury, which has kept the two from playing together much on the field. Lyons said, “Right now [Kayleigh] is not 100 percent with her knee, but she is coming back really strong.” Although Kayleigh had been dealing with a knee injury, it did not stop her from garnering the KSC Player of the Week title earlier in the season.
Although they have not been on the field much together yet, Lyons is optimistic for when Kayleigh gets healthy. Lyons said, they haven’t played much together yet but they play well together. “They read each other very well. In practice they find each other and they played together all through high school so they know each other; and there’s a connection between twins, they say,” Lyons said.
When asked if there were any interesting stories about the twins on the soccer field Kayleigh said, “Our junior year of high school, we won the [state] championship for our team. I assisted [Amanda’s] goal and there were articles in the newspaper about this ‘Marshall plan’ to win the game.”
Austin Smith can be contacted
at asmith@kscequinox.com
