Dylan Honan, #3, and Tyler Honan, #5. Photo courtesy of New Utrecht High School
Relax — your eyes haven’t been playing tricks on you.
There are two. On the field.
Sometimes even at the same time.
With the same last name.
And if you’ve attended a New Utrecht High School football game you know about the Honan twins: seniors Dylan and Tyler.
“In my 25 years of coaching, these are the first twins on my roster,” Head Coach Alan Balkan told the Brooklyn Eagle after his Utes defeated Eagle Academy, 14-6 for their Homecoming win last week.
“On the practice field,” Balkan said, “I’ll yell for one, and it’s usually the wrong one and the wrong name.”
Dyler is a wide receiver who also plays halfback band linebacker while “older brother” Tyler — by two minutes — is a corner and linebacker.
“Both young men do great things, in the trenches,” said the coach, “Yet both have different qualities.”
But what they both have is the bug to compete.
“Everything, and I mean everything involves competition between us,” said Tyler. “From the smallest thing to the biggest. From grades in school to football.”
In fact, Tyler even says he’s the smarter of the two.
For three years, they both toiled on the varsity football team for the Green and White. “There’s pressure every single day,” Tyler admitted. “Yet we push each other not only to get better, but to help our team.”
And with the daily pressure of competing comes a bit of controversy.
“There’s always some confusion in getting names correct, from our teammates as well as the coaches,” said Dylan.
On the social side, Tyler said meeting the young ladies at Utrecht isn’t as much a problem for him as it is for the females.
“Honestly, the girls can’t tell us apart; Dylan or Tyler,” Tyler said. “In fact, usually whichever one of us they see first is the one they’ll stick with.”
The one thing both stick to is their jersey numbers — Dyler wears number three and…
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