Twin power, Vandevelde-style
In the moments after winning the Class 7A volleyball state championship with Mountain Brook High School last October, Ann and Liz Vandevelde found each other.
There were tears. There was an embrace. But there weren’t many words.
“We never really stated it to each other, but I thought about it,” Ann said.
The twins realized the Spartans’ straight-sets victory over McGill-Toolen on Oct. 31 would likely be the final time they shared a playing field together in organized sports.
The moment was a special one for additional reasons. Mountain Brook had been eliminated in the semifinals in consecutive years leading up to that triumph. The Spartans won the state title last in 2016, when the twins were freshmen. Ann served the championship point that season, but Liz spent the year on the junior varsity team.
The 2019 season saw the two of them win it all while both starred on the varsity squad.
“That feeling when we won was unreal,” Liz said.
FINDING THEIR SPORTS
Ann and Liz have played many sports over the years. When they were kids, they tried soccer and softball, but neither stuck. There were also Liz’s brief experiments with gymnastics and cheerleading.
They are actually pretty good swimmers. At the age of 8, they tied for the meet record at the Senior County finals in the butterfly event, hitting the wall at the exact same time.
In elementary and middle school, they honed in on basketball, tennis and volleyball. The twins were part of dominating teams at Mountain Brook Junior High, as all three sports won the Metro South championship when they were in seventh and eighth grade.
They began to carve out their unique identities in athletics as ninth grade rolled around. With Ann making the varsity volleyball and varsity basketball teams, she decided to put the tennis racquet down. Liz made the varsity tennis team and JV volleyball and basketball teams.
For their final three years at Mountain Brook, they competed on the varsity volleyball team together, with Ann playing basketball in the winter and Liz playing tennis in the spring. Each of them excelled in both of their sports. As juniors and seniors, the Vandeveldes were named to the Starnes Publishing All-South Metro volleyball team. Ann was also honorable mention All-South Metro in basketball each of the last two seasons.
On the tennis court, Liz lost very few times in her high school career. The Mountain Brook tennis team won the state championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Liz contends the Spartans would have won again this season had it not been stripped prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Liz won state titles in singles and doubles each of those three years.
“It was very upsetting when our whole season was ended because we didn’t get to play that many matches [due to weather],” Liz said.
CONTRASTING DEMEANORS
Ann and Liz are both competitive at their core, but that desire to win manifests itself in different forms.
“I’m more Type A [personality], and she’s more Type B,” Ann said.
Ann’s personality can be classified as intense, while Liz is more laid back. Throughout their athletic careers, coaches have attempted to find a middle ground for both of them. At times, they have wanted Ann to calm down. At others, they have wondered whether Liz is trying her hardest.
But make no mistake, the determination is there with both of them.
“We’re both competitive, and we like to win. We’re both dedicated to whatever we’re doing,” Ann said.
Their mom, Adelaide, agreed with their assessment, adding they have gleaned traits from each other as the years have gone on.
LIFE OFF THE COURT
Many would agree Ann and Liz are talented enough to pursue playing a sport in college. Ann gave serious consideration to playing volleyball at the next level, even playing for former Mountain Brook and current Birmingham-Southern coach Haven O’Quinn’s club team as a junior.
“I enjoyed it a lot, but I feel like I’m called to do something else,” Ann said.
As a result, both twins are heading to the University of Alabama in the fall for non-athletic reasons. Liz hopes to be a nurse, while Ann hopes to get a secondary education degree, specializing in math.
“They were pretty open to letting us do whatever we wanted,” Liz said of their parents’ support through the process of creating post-high school plans.
The list of organizations they’ve been involved with is somehow longer than the list of sports they’ve played over the years.
“We take school just as important as sports with the student-athlete side of things,” Liz said.
They are in the National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta. They have been involved with First Priority throughout their time in school. Ann served as the Key Club vice president this year, while Liz served on a team working to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
The list goes on.
There will also soon come a time when they don’t live in the same house. Next school year, they will live in the same building, but have different roommates. They admit they will miss each other, but it won’t negatively impact their relationship.
“We won’t be around each other as much, but I feel like that’s just life,” Ann said. “You can’t always live together. We’ll still be really close.”