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Three Pairs Of Sisters Delivering 1-2 Punch For Hoops Teams

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: January 17, 2009

Brothers and sisters often grow up playing each others' sport. Anyone will tell you that it is not unusual to spot identical surnames while scanning high school rosters.

If the family genome is athletics-friendly, neither is it rare to see some sibling pairings excel in unison.

When it comes to West Pasco girls basketball this year, though, there's a little bit of an added twist. In an area spanning roughly 200 square miles and containing five separate public high schools, three - Hudson, Ridgewood and Mitchell - have varsity-level sisters on roster.

Furthermore, these sisters aren't simply going through the motions or watching games from the bench. All six girls start and fill indispensible roles within their respective teams' game plan.

Twins Aleesa and Daylyn Williamson, both seniors at Ridgewood, and twins Latrel and Lashe Kirkland, juniors at Mitchell, each are their teams' top two scoring threats. Hudson's Cara Carley, a senior, and sister Lacey, a freshman, are second and third for the Cobras.

Of the three, the Williamsons are probably the most similar on the court, mainly because both are guards. Aleesa runs the point and is more of the distributor and Daylyn is the gunner at the shooting-guard position.

Both the Kirklands and the Carleys are split, with one sister in the frontcourt and the other in the back.

"I'm down low because basically I'm just more physical and she's our shooter," Latrel Kirkland said of her and Lashe's roles.

The same can be said in Hudson, with Cara Carley being the one going inside and the freshman Lacey running the offense at point guard.

Setting talent aside, perhaps the most obvious attribute of having siblings play together is familiarity.

"Those two (Cara and Lacey) know each other very, very well," Hudson coach Aaron Lounsbury said. "You can tell how much they play."

"We've watched each other play a lot, so it's like we already know where each other are going to be," Cara Carley said.

"When I'm talking with my sister, I can just say one word and she knows exactly what I'm talking about and then we go do it," Aleesa Williamson said, addressing the same topic.

That kind of on-court chemistry can also help to explain how the pairings are all individually ranked in their team's Top 3 in virtually all major statistical categories.

Along with adding how well they each work together, the girls all readily admit there is plenty of inter-sibling competition.

"We push each other harder, definitely," Aleesa Williamson said. "In school, on the court, it doesn't matter what it is."

Lashe Kirkland put things a little more succinctly.

"I always try to do better than her. It's always a competition."

Once the competition includes outside opponents, and things get a little dicey. Even so, the tightness of each pairs' bond becomes apparent.

"Yes, I definitely get defensive," Cara Carley said. "If someone sets a hard pick or something and they don't help (Lacey) up I usually have a comment for them. She's my little sister."

While the sibling defense mechanisms would most likely come into effect with the scenario swapped, things have not come to that yet for the younger Carley.

"No. She can handle herself," she said smiling.

When those situations arise around the highly intense Williamson twins, Aleesa may have summed the typical reaction up best - along with the reasoning behind everything else.

"It's a sister thing."

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com.

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