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| Courtney Poirier (left) and Rachel Poirier as freshmen in 2015 |
They're not hard to tell apart (though they were initially), and they're wonderful people. But with so many similarities there's an unconscious tendency to treat them like the same person.
But they're not the same person. The challenge in coaching twins is to notice the subtleties in their personalities -- to treat them as individuals. I've been reminded several times by Courtney and Rachel, half-jokingly, that they're not the same person.
Biases like this can be helpful. When we see a bear, we don't spend time getting to know the subtleties in its personality -- we just run away. These same biases become troubling when they're extended to gender, race, and ethnicity.
Even twins -- because everyone yearns to be understood.
Last year there was an article written about the Poiriers in Fredonia's alumni magazine. I realized that I never re-posted it here. The full article was written by our Sports Information Director Jerry Reilly, though this is a condensed version. The picture was brilliantly captured by Roger Coda (notice the right side). Enjoy.
Courtney and Rachel Poirier share a unique bond -- so unique, that sometimes it's unrecognizable.
Twin sisters from West Seneca, N.Y., the Poiriers started playing volleyball together when they were 12 years old. When they entered Fredonia together last fall instead of going off to different colleges, they chose to postpone inevitable separation anxiety.
"When you go through your whole life," Courtney said, "and everyone sees you not just as yourself, but you're looked at as two people instead of one, it's hard to go from that to being on your own."
[...]
The Poiriers know all about doing things together. That's important in volleyball, where players take cues from the subtle movements of teammates.
"We've had fantastic plays together," Rachel said. "Those I'll always remember because they happened with Courtney. We don't even have to talk on the court and we'll always be communicating."
"Our brains are alike," Courtney said. "We're always thinking the same thing. We have those moments where we say the exact same sentence at the same time. It's the same way on the volleyball court."
The Poiriers were recruited from West Seneca West High School by Coach Geoff Braun. "He needed players at our positions," Courtney said. "It was sort of a package deal."
Braun said that he has been able to tell the twins apart. Of course, it helps that Courtney is a libero, which means she wears a different-colored jersey than her teammates.
It hasn't always been that way. When the girls were on the same youth team, a referee negated a play Rachel had made, calling her for illegally touching the ball above the net after starting in the back row. Rachel actually was in the front, while Courtney was in the back. To avoid further confusion, the official made Rachel turn her shirt inside-out.
...the Poiriers also switched classes in high school -- especially if one of them had homework to finish. One would sit in on the class, while the other would get her work done in study hall. They sometimes even took quizzes for each other -- but drew the line at taking major tests.
People rarely caught on -- not even the time one sister got up during class, left the room, and was soon replaced by the twin. Despite having different clothing and hair styles -- and only one wore braces -- the teacher, and most classmates, did not notice.
"It was weird," Rachel said. "I was like, 'You don't notice anything different about me?"