While Kacie and Kylie Leppla may be twins, they certainly possess very different skills on a West Holmes Lady Knights team that is gearing up for what they hope is yet another run to Columbus.
Kylie, aka Hard Hat, is the outside shooter and ball handler of the two, a player with a feathery touch from downtown who handles the ball and handles pressure as a guard. Kacie, aka Blue Collar, is the rough-and-tumble player down low, a granite block of a player who is tough to move and rugged in the paint.
But the one thing they have in common is the way they approach the game. The twins come to play and play hard. They strap on their hard hats, grab their lunch boxes, lace up their shoes and go to work, and the result is a coachs dream. While they may have different skill sets, both possess a Leppla trait that is a relentless drive to perform and succeed and a willingness to work hard to make that goal happen.
Together they make double trouble for opponents who hope to upend one of the states best Division II programs.
The Triway Titans learned that the hard way when the twins hauled down one offensive rebound after another to keep West Holmes possessions alive in the Lady Knights dismantling of the Titans in game two of this years schedule. In that game, Kylie had three offensive rebounds and Kacie had four, and Kacie set the gold standard for showing youngsters how to box out on a shot.
They dont mind doing the dirty work, said West Holmes coach Lisa Patterson. The nice thing about those two is that when I send them into a game, I know exactly what I am going to get from them. They are going to work their rear ends off to help us win, and do the little things that a lot of kids dont want to do, like playing hard-nosed defense.
While the Lunch Pail Crew has come off the bench the past two years for Pattersons state-qualifying teams, the juniors will be content to do whatever is needed to make this years version of the Lady Knights a winner.
But it will be just a matter of time before Blue Collar and Hard Hat take center stage, and the Lunch Pail Crew will get the spotlight they so richly deserve.
