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player ready...When Carly and Kathleen Smith started playing lacrosse for Glenbrook North last season, they were lucky.
The then-freshmen twins had an older pair of twins to look up to in then-seniors Caitrin and Maggie Holohan.
“[They] were role models for my sister and I,” Carly Smith said. “They were in the same situation as us four years ago when they were freshman twins on varsity.”
They were good role models, too. Caitrin Holohan, a second-team all-state performer last season, was among the state’s leaders in assists and groundballs. Maggie Holohan, an honorable mention all-state selection, was among the state’s leading scorers.
“They were awesome,” Spartans coach Tom Rosenbaum said of the Holohans. “They got along great. They were each other’s biggest fans. They pushed each other, they were competitive with each other.”
So Carly Smith honed in on the Holohan sisters.
“It was amazing to watch them on the field,” Carly Smith said. “Whenever I was on the sidelines, I’d make sure to focus in on them. Just watching them, you learn so much. They were so connected. It was amazing. Every pass they made, even if they weren’t looking, everything was perfect.”
Glenbrook North has had a number of sisters lately.
There are the Holohan and Smith twins — and Shayna and Naomi Lutz. The former is a junior and the Spartans’ leading returning scorer. The latter is a freshman.
Having siblings on the same team is not uncommon in lacrosse.
“You need someone to play catch with,” Rosenbaum said.
Thus, younger sisters like Naomi Lutz sometimes find their paths tilted toward lacrosse.
“I used to make her hold her softball mitt and throw the ball to me because she didn’t have a lacrosse stick,” Shayna Lutz said. “Then a year later, she got a lacrosse stick, and we’ve been playing ever since.”
“What are they going to do?” Rosenbaum said. “They’re going to pick up the stuff, aren’t they? That’s how Naomi got so good.”
Shayna Lutz said the learning doesn’t end when the sisters stop practicing.
“We’ll get home from practice and we’ll just talk about, ‘Did you think you played 100 percent today?’ And we’ll realize maybe we didn’t, and without each other, we wouldn’t be able to recognize that,” Shayna Lutz said.
Already, having sisters on the same team has paid dividends for Glenbrook North in 2015.
In one of the Lutz sisters’ first games together, against perennial powerhouse New Trier, Shayna Lutz was struggling to score.
“[Naomi Lutz] came over to me and was like, ‘We got this,’ ” Shayna Lutz said.
Sure enough, both Lutz sisters ended up with a goal.
“It’s just so great having someone there who knows exactly how I’m playing,” Shayna Lutz said. “We’re always looking for each other to go 100 percent and be the best we can be.”
The only problem: Naomi Lutz might use her goal to argue that she is the better player. Shayna Lutz didn’t score one her freshman season against New Trier
Those are the kinds of things that only a sister, after years of tagging along to games, would know.
“I love that,” Shayna Lutz said. “It just encourages me to keep on going harder. We’re just so competitive with each other and it really helps.”
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Carly Smith is a little more separated from her twin — they play on opposite ends of the field — but she said they share that same special chemistry.
“It’s a lot easier to understand her,” Carly Smith said.
Understanding can lead to great advice and encouragement.
“In games, if we’re not doing our best, we can always just pull each other aside and be like, ‘I know you. I’ve played in the backyard with you every single day,’ ” Shayna Lutz said. ” ‘I know that you could be doing this and you shouldn’t be doing this.’ “
Rosenblum is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.