Brother and sister reunite through Keene State College basketball
Michelle Berthiaume
Equinox Staff
Throughout sports history, there have been a handful of famous sibling sets that changed the game through their success: Peyton and Eli Manning, Vanessa and Serena Williams, the Ripken’s and the Hull’s, just to name a few.
This year, Keene State College has one of its very own sibling combinations, Jamie and John Boyatsis.
The Boyatsis’ are from Dover, N.H. John, a sophomore, is a member of the men’s basketball team.
While his sister Jamie, a freshman, is already proving to be an important part of the women’s basketball team here at KSC.
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Basketball seems to run in the blood of the Boyatsis family.
Jamie and John’s older brother Tim Boyatsis also played high school basketball at Dover, moving on to Endicott College after his senior year.
The Boyatsis’ cousin, Curran Leighton played alongside Jamie at Dover High School, continuing her career at the University of Southern Maine and then transferring to Division II, Saint Anselm College upon graduation.
Their parents, Steve and Jan, along with their grandfather, also played basketball, back in their younger days.
Jamie and John Boyatsis continued the strong family basketball tradition by competing in the game throughout their entire life.
Jamie Boyatsis played high school basketball at Dover High School before attending Keene State. John Boyatsis attended Cheshire Academy, where he also stood out on the court.
Basketball has always kept the Boyatsis family close. Jamie and John are exceptionally closer because of basketball than the rest of the clan.
“John and I are pretty close. There’s four of us. I’m the youngest, John is two years older than me, then we have an older brother, Tim, who is two years older than John, and an older sister, Alexis, who is two years older than Tim,” Jamie said. “We are all pretty close but obviously I am closest with John, just because of the age and because of basketball.”
Jamie Boyatsis chose KSC after her senior season ended.
“I only looked at three schools. I looked at University of New England, Saint Joseph’s, and Keene State. Really, I chose Keene because I liked the campus way better here,” Jamie Boyatsis said.
She added that the other two schools she was looking at, UNE and Saint Joseph’s, were a lot smaller and more excluded from everything. She said she liked the placement of Keene State College.
John attending Keene State College had very little impact on Jamie’s decision to join the Lady Owl’s.
“John coming here was actually one of the reasons why I didn’t want to come here. I was really pushing toward going to the other two schools but I just realized they weren’t for me,” Jamie said.
“I guess Keene was just the right school for her. She wanted to play basketball in college and it worked out that she wanted to come here,” John said about his little sister’s decision to attend KSC.
“I felt like John already came here, he had already established his spot here, this was his school and I shouldn’t come here but I decided to anyway,” Jamie said. She said that once she saw the campus and met the team, she couldn’t help but want to be an Owl.
It took some getting used to before John could accept his sister’s decision to attend Keene State. “I was worried about her coming here at first. I didn’t really want to go out and see my baby sister around but I’m happier now that she’s here. I’m getting used to it,” John said.
“John was a little skeptical at first about having me here but he warmed up to it. I think it was more because he didn’t really have a choice,” Jamie said with a laugh. John did warm up to situation quite nicely. “It’s nice to have a little bit of home away from home. I get to see her and it’s great that I have someone to relate to here I guess,” John said.
“I wouldn’t do it any differently. I would still pick Keene State. I really like my team, we have a lot of team chemistry. And it’s cool having John around and being able to hang out with him whenever I want to but we also have that space if we need it,” Jamie said.
She also said that Keene is big enough where if she didn’t want to see him, she wouldn’t have to and same thing for him.
There’s no lack of support in the Boyatsis family. John and Jamie’s parents, Steve and Jan Boyatsis are more than pleased with Jamie’s decision to attend the same school as her brother.
“My parents love that we are both at Keene. My family has been very supportive of us playing basketball our whole lives. They love to come watch all of the games and it’s convenient for them because they can come see both of us play at the same place,” John said.
KSC is lucky enough to have both of the Boyatsis’ here. Although John is currently out with a knee injury, his team improved to 5-1 on the season with a 92-55 win last Saturday over U-Mass Dartmouth.
Jamie continues to contribute to her team off the bench as the Lady Owls also improved to 5-1 with the win over U-Mass Dartmouth, 71-62.
Jamie contributed 10 points in 19 minutes. Both Owls teams are looking toward a bright future, with the help of the Boyatsis family.
Michelle Berthiaume can be contacted at mberthiaume@ksc.mailcruiser.com