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Twinning: Springfield (Delco.) boys, girls programs feature unique bond

02/08/2023, 1:45am EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

Take a peek at the Springfield (Delco.) boys and girls basketball rosters, and it doesn’t take long to notice something a little unusual. 

There’s Kaitlyn Kearney, a senior on the girls’ squad, and Keagan Kearney, a senior on the boys. Right below them on their respective rosters are Anabel Kreydt and Aidan Kreydt, respectively, two more seniors. Keep looking, and you’ll see Colin Treude, a junior on the boys’ roster…and Erin Treude, another junior, on the girls’ side. 

Yes, it’s certainly a family affair in Delco. Three sets of twins, all playing basketball for the Cougars, give Springfield (Delco.)’s two hoops programs a special connection.

“I just think it’s pretty cool that Springfield has three sets of twins that all play varsity basketball,” Colin Treude said. “I think it’s just really unique.”

Springfield (Delco.)'s basketball programs have three sets of twins on the rosters. (Photo courtesy Ky McNichol)

For sure it is. And it doesn’t stop there.

During a team conversation last year, girls’ coach Ky McNichol and her Cougars stumbled upon just how deep that twin connection ran. It was well-known that McNichol had a twin, her sister Kacy McNichol — an assistant coach at Neumann University — often stopping by practices and games. A few of her players knew that assistant Fran Burbidge also had a twin sister, Chrissy, Ky friendly with the two since her high school days.

When it turned out that newcomer Cora Frattori, now a junior with the Cougars, also had a twin sister — Riley, who doesn’t play basketball — it seemed like a joke come to life.

“It was like, ‘I have a twin,’ ‘I have a twin,’ ‘I have a twin,’ and (Cora) was like ‘I have a twin sister,’ and Fran was like ‘I have a twin sister,’” McNichol said. “Some of the other players didn’t believe us at first.”

Yes, the Springfield girls’ team has six twins in the program, even though none of their twins are also on the team. And they’re not the only siblings around: Mia Valerio, a senior on the girls’ team, has a brother, Luke Valerio, a freshman on the boys’ team.


Kaitlyn and Keagan Kearney. (Photo courtesy Ky McNichol)

The twin connection started to become apparent to most of the families in middle school, when the Kearneys moved from Tennessee to the Philadelphia suburbs before 8th grade. Even though the Treudes were in a different grade, all the families quickly became aware of one another through the basketball connection.

“We went to a pretty small school, so me and my brother were the only twins in our grade,” Kaitlyn Kearney said. “It was kinda weird when we moved up here and there’s a bunch of twins up here, especially in my grade, we have a bunch of twins. It is pretty different, but it’s cool.”

All agreed that when the twins aren’t at each other’s practices, you wouldn’t necessarily know that anybody involved has one. But there’s no doubt that shared bond has helped the coaches connect with some of their players on a little bit of a different level. 

“Twins understand the twin world and there’s no other person in this world that would understand a twin’s relationship unless you’re talking to another twin,” McNichol said. “I was just talking to Cora the other night, and I wasn’t like, ‘isn’t it so cool to always have a best friend?’ and she lit up and smiled.”

With twins playing a significant role on both sides, both Cougar teams are enjoying productive seasons. 

The girls finished the season with an 18-4 record, 14-2 in the Central League, riding a six-game winning streak. The boys are 11-11 (10-6), having won seven of their last nine to make a run at the postseason.

Colin Treude, a 6-4 forward, is one of the boys’ starters and often their leading scorer, giving them an inside-out presence amongst a handful of sharpshooting guards. On the girls’ side, Kreydt and Kearney, a Widener basketball commit, are starters for McNichol’s defensive-minded group, along with Valerio. The rest play reserve and support roles for their respective teams, finding ways to make contributions however their coaches ask of them.

“It’s cool to see,” said Bryan Treude, Colin and Erin’s father. “They all go to high school here, and they all played CYO basketball at St. Francis so they all have grown up together playing basketball  [...] they all have known each other for a long time.”


Aidan and Anabel Kreydt. (Photo courtesy Ky McNichol)

There is a difficult side to the twins’ basketball schedule. The Central League plays almost all of its games with the boys and girls trading places for a night: when Springfield’s girls play at Radnor, the boys host Radnor; when the girls host Haverford, the boys are at Haverford, and so on, almost always at the same time.

Where other leagues have gone to a doubleheader method or, more commonly, putting their boys and girls’ games on different nights, the Central’s system forces parents with kids on both teams, twins or not, to have to make a tough choice every gameday.

Each of the sets of parents has their own system for how they watch their kids: the Kearneys, Tammy and Mike, split up, with one parent at home games and one at away games each week; the Treudes, Bryan and Patricia, try to stick to the home games, but will sometimes go to road games, depending on matchups and big contests, but there are negotiations each time.

“We don’t want any accusations of favoritism,” Patricia Treude said with a laugh. 

The Kreydts, Jackie and Jason, are a little more flexible, seeing what the schedule brings and which matchup each parent would be best suited to see, though they make sure to see their twins equally over the course of the year. 

“It’s tough because we don’t really get to see both kids play,” Jackie Kreydt said, “so that’s the toughest part, to have the kids playing at the same time.

“It’s reassuring to know there are other parents who also have to juggle and who are not able to make everything,” she continued. “It makes you feel better.”

All of the twins agreed that their parents did a good job managing the rotations, no matter how they did it. And they all understand how their parents feel, as they’re mostly unable to watch their siblings play.


Erin and Colin Treude. (Photo courtesy Ky McNichol)

They all estimated they had seen their twins play between five and 10 times in total during their high school careers, a handful of times each season at best. An 18-game league schedule means there are only four non-league games that could even be on different dates, and even those sometimes overlap.

“It is definitely difficult,” Kaitlyn Kearney said, “because I’d like to be able to watch my brother play, and to be able to watch our guys’ team play.”

“I’ve always loved watching my sister and her teammates play,” Colin Treude said. “I like watching them play, they all do the little things right, and it’s a cool opportunity to watch them all play.”

It’s even worse for the Kreydt siblings, who each play three sports: Aidan plays football, basketball and lacrosse; Anabel plays soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Between all their various practices and games, the time they get to spend with each other is fleeting.

“I barely know how (Aidan) is as a basketball player for the most part, because I don’t get to see him in that setting,” Anabel said. “It makes you cherish the quality time that you do get to spend with them together, better.”

Technology helps. Most of the Central League games are livestreamed, which allows the parents to watch both games at once, at least one parent of the group — who normally sit close to one another — to have the stream up, keeping everybody informed. Including the kids. 

“Normally right after games [...] right after we go thank the (crowd), I’ll go up to whichever parent is there, ask how the girls’ team is doing,” Keagan Kearney said. “If we’re at an away game, on the bus ride home I’ll open my phone real quick and see if I can catch the ending on the livestream they do at the school.”

The programs tried to arrange a doubleheader this season so the boys and girls could play back-to-back, but couldn’t find a partner willing to do so.

However, there’s good news ahead: both teams play in the Central League playoffs’ first round on Thursday night, the girls’ as the No. 3 seed, at home against Penncrest; the boys as the No. 5 seed, at either Upper Darby or Garnet Valley.

The games have been scheduled so that all of the Springfield parents will get to see both: the girls will play at Springfield at 5:30 PM, the boys at Garnet at 7:30 PM. None of them will have to make that tough decision for one of the final games of most of their high school careers; instead they’ll be able to just enjoy the evening, and not have to think about what’s next.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Tammy Kearney said, “to watch them do something that they love.”


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