Taylor and Haley Thierry compete Saturday, celebrating a family legacy
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John Kuntz - Cleveland.com
The Thierry Twins are on opposing teams for the first time this weekend, and it’s a game packed with meaning.
Children shake up everything. From the moment they’re born, they command constant attention through feeding, changing and trying to get them to sleep for at least an hour, maybe two.
Over the years they become more independent, but for the parents it’s a smokescreen. Sure there are great moments when they start doing the dishes for you, do their homework without being reminded or reaching the age where they can watch their siblings and the parents can get a much needed night away. Even with that little bit of freedom, they’re always on the minds of the ones who did the raising.
They’re also celebrated at every turn. From using an actual toilet for the first time to playing a solo in the band’s winter recital. Positive reinforcement is not only for the kids themselves, but it’s also for the parents. It lets you know that something is working.
For Elin Thierry, the mother of college basketball twins Taylor and Haley Thierry, hearing about Saturday’s game between the fraternal twins at
Ohio State and Youngstown State was not one of those moments.
“My initial reaction was no,” said Elin. “Of course, I would rather them be playing on the same team. But yeah, I still have mixed feelings about it.”
“She’s not dunking on me”
After three seasons playing for their respective in-state schools, the twins from Cleveland face each other for the first time. Like many siblings, the Thierrys grew up playing together, culminating in their final formal game of basketball on the same team at the Laurel School.
To the twins, their reactions are different from their mom.
“I’ve been wanting to play my sister for the last like four years up until now. So that being the opportunity to play against my sister after, you know, three years is like really exciting for me,” said Haley. “My initial reaction was like, this can’t be real.”
That’s Haley, who is playing in her final season with the Youngstown Penguins, of the Horizon League.
Robert Hayes - Youngstown State University
“Yeah, my sister is definitely excited about that more than I am,” said Taylor. “I never thought I’d be playing against my sister at the collegiate level, but here we are. So I’m excited to compete against them.”
The difference in excitement levels from the Thierry twins isn’t based solely upon Haley playing for the smaller school tucked in the corner of Northeast Ohio, playing against the in-state juggernaut that is Ohio State. A university whose fandom stretches to all state borders and beyond.
It is because the Thierry sisters are their own people. Taylor is a 6-foot-1 hybrid guard/forward whose vertical causes issues for opponents, and Haley is a 5-foot-9 defensive-minded guard who impacts games beyond what you see in a stat sheet — and that is only talking about basketball.
Off the court, both Thierry twins can be reserved, but Haley is the one more likely to join in at a party. For Taylor, she’s happy being around a gathering, taking it all in.
Watch Ohio State and that doesn’t come as a surprise. The Buckeye forward, who has started every game since the start of her sophomore season, makes big plays but is known for consistency. Thierry’s known for being the team’s foundation who picks up rebounds, is integral in the full court press at half court and scores baskets with high efficiency.
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Taylor isn’t likely to lead the team in scoring each night but her Ohio State teammates know what they’ll get game in and game out. The senior is involved in every play, reads game situations well and makes good decisions, but Taylor’s play is nowhere near her ceiling.
“I know my sister, like she can dunk,” said Haley. “I always tell her, I’m like, if you get the opportunity, do it. Like, no matter what, like, that would be so exciting for everyone. And knowing like how, like the amount of work she puts in and all that kind of stuff.”
There’s been no physical evidence showing a Taylor dunk, at least to those watching the team, but Haley knows. The Thierry sisters don’t always talk basketball but when they do it is helping each other’s game, telling them what they see and even videos of a Taylor dunk.
The Ohio State forward doesn’t have to dunk to impact a game but regardless, that’s not Taylor’s style. That’s unwanted attention. If dunking was Taylor’s game, or she saw Saturday as the perfect time debut it, it won’t be on her sister, if its up to Haley.
“My coaches were like, ‘what if she posts to you and dunks on you? What are you going to do,’” said Haley. “And I was like, ‘she’s not dunking on me.’”
“Taylor, you have to go home and eat and go to bed”
Growing up, the Thierry twins lived in a home built on family, faith and hard work. After all, their parents Elin and John Thierry were both college athletes. Their mom played volleyball at the University of Oklahoma and their dad played football at Alcorn State University, followed up by a nine-year NFL career with the
Chicago Bears,
Green Bay Packers,
Cleveland Browns and
Atlanta Falcons.
Elin and John’s three daughters all excelled athletically, but like any good parents, they weren’t pushing their personal dreams or past athletic ambition onto their kids. Instead, an environment where if something was done, it was done right.
Older sister Jordan had the same work in athletics, and was as talented as her sisters, but focused instead on the arts. Haley and Taylor have both received commendations from their hometown mayor for their educational achievements throughout high school and college, including Haley’s spot on the YSU Honor Roll and Thierry’s place in back-to-back Academic All-Big Ten teams.
When the Thierry family has their mind set on something, it’s getting done the right way, even if it sometimes the kids took it to another level.
“We had to pull Taylor away from the court when she was in elementary school, middle school, high school,” said Elin. “Like Taylor, you have to go home and eat and go to bed. She’d be there for hours and just, she just thrived. She just loved that.”
Their dad helped them along the way, Haley and Taylor shared
in a 2020 interview. Taking them to the gym, using some of the drills he used in professional football to help his daughters’ movement on the court and being both a dad and a coach to his twin girls.
“They have worked their little butts off and sacrificed a lot, you know, socially, especially in elementary and middle school, high school, they didn’t go do all the fun stuff kids were doing on the weekend,” said Elin. “They didn’t always go. It was, it was basketball and school, and school and basketball, and meeting with our congregation and community service.”
Elin Thierry
A young Taylor and Haley Thierry
In-home competition was also part of that development. Sure, Saturday is the first time they’re playing against each other formally, but siblings are going to have some sort of rivalry. For the Thierrys, they channeled it.
“I think that’s helped us to get better as players and throughout our career,” said Taylor.
Look at the two sisters and it’s clear they have benefited. In Haley’s junior season, the guard led the team in steals and was second in rebounds and that was with 15 starts on the season. Taylor has been Ohio State’s most consistent player over the past three years, and was the highest rated offensive player in the country in the 23-24 season.
When the two Ohio sides play, it’ll feature two athletes who have excelled in every stage of their basketball upbringings.
There’s a real chance that the two could go up against each other, in-game. Haley plays a second or third guard position, while Thierry normally occupies the third guard/third forward role for Ohio State.
“I definitely have a size advantage on her,” said Taylor. “But maybe I will have to guard her. I don’t know.”
In high school, Haley was taller than Taylor until the Ohio State forward had a growth spurt, now standing a few inches taller than Haley. Regardless of the size difference, the two competitors will compete if called to face each other on Saturday.
For Elin, that competition doesn’t stretch into Ohio State’s game with the Youngstown Penguins. The Thierry family matriarch isn’t choosing one daughter over the other. Apply the same idea to the family, who’s not only traveling from the Cleveland area to see the Thierrys but even members of the family out of state, from as far as Louisiana.
The current count is up to 12 people, but that doesn’t include the friends who’ve reached out to both Haley and Taylor letting them know they would be there. For the ones who can’t make it, their eyes will be focused on the two sisters.
Even though competition runs through the most recent generations of the Thierry family, Saturday goes beyond a final scoreline.
“It’s just an opportunity for us to dote on Taylor and Haley and really praise them for the work they’ve put into what they’ve done,” said Elin.
“Once we have these girls, it’s about them”
Saturday’s game is a celebration. Sure, there will be a final score, the result will be analyzed and one team will win and one team will lose, but it’s the culmination of the love and sacrifice of a family. It starts the process of closing at least one of its chapters.
When the Thierry’s mom says she has mixed feelings about the game, it’s the competitive part that gets the negative connotations involved when people say they have “mixed feelings.”
There are a lot of feelings, and another piece of Saturday is pride. Being proud of a family legacy. The competition part will one day be forgotten. There will be bragging, and likely jokes about it for the foreseeable future, but what the weekend matchup represents is something that dives much deeper.
Back in 2017, six days before what would have been the twins first high school basketball game for the Laurel Gators, John passed away suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 46. Elin and the girls were ready to meet up with John and his family for Thanksgiving when Elin received the call.
Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images
It’s a moment that never leaves you. A moment that sits with you for the rest of your life. You are reminded of it at all the crossroads of life. What would it be like if they were around for this or that?
“He probably would not sit in the arena,” said Elin. “He would just be outside of the arena, watching it on one of the TVs probably, but he would be, you know what, he would probably be a little emotional and he’s not an emotional person in that sense.”
Watch anyone you love succeed and it elicits emotion. Watch the Buckeyes’ family section on any given game and they’re cheering players on, giving referees constructive criticism and sometimes standing up to a chant.
“He can be very silly and just funny and but serious about work and doing, taking care of responsibilities,” said Elin. “But I think he would just kind of sit back and take it in and you know, reflect like I’m reflecting in all the work that’s been put in and to see us come to this moment and just the culmination of everything over the past 20 some years. It’s remarkable.”
Elin sees Taylor’s stoic on the outside work ethic and hilarious sense of humor when it's time with family, friends or her congregation.
“Like, I will gut laugh from her facial expressions, her quick wit, her snarkiness. She’s very funny,” said Elin.
There is a misconception that having kids takes away your own goals, but it doesn’t. Suddenly your own goals don’t live up to wanting the best for them.
“He said, ‘once we have these girls, it’s about them,’” said Elin. “ And he was very serious about that. And so his life was about these girls.”
The Thierry twins have those pieces of their dad and mom. Haley’s caring mentality and excitement to compete against her sister, Taylor’s hard work and focus in what she does but the hilarity behind the scenes.
“All the adjectives”
On Saturday, all that will be on display and more. The “more” comes from the Thierry twins road to get to this point. Both are nearing the end of their college basketball journeys. By April, both sisters will move on to the next chapter.
It’s looking back at who these twins were leaving high school, going their separate ways (which one was more excited about than the other) and seeing who they now as they crossover from the final months of adolescence into full-blown adulthood.
“It makes me emotional because my husband and I really put in a lot of effort and thought into how we were going to raise them and who we surround them with and the environment with which they grew up in. So their schooling, their friends, our congregation, just the community with which they have grown in has helped develop them into these beautiful human beings,” said Elin. “And a lot of it has to do with what they put into it also. So not only are they these tremendous student athletes, they are loving and kind and funny and caring and sympathetic and nurturing, hardworking, like all the adjectives.”
Success is not measured the same for everybody. Athletics aren’t the only avenue in which someone can excel and be a source of pride for a parent.
Raising a child is about pouring all that you can into a person and hope that it works out in the end. It’s hard to know if what is being poured in is working. For Elin and John Thierry, they know.
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