Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 7, 1993 TAG: 9310070318
SECTION: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
No, sir, these boys believe that they can compete with whomever trots in from the opposite sideline. That kind of chip-on-the-shoulder outlook is the contagious result of having hard-noses on the team, such as brothers Patrick and Brandon Steele and twins Raypheal and Maurice Milton.
Before they ever learned to compete with the Narrowses, Blacksburgs and Grayson Countys of the world, these two pairs of siblings had an education in competing with each other, brother on brother.
The Steeles grew up playing together on the same football teams, as did the Miltons. Each set of players is exceptionally close. Ask either of the Miltons or either of the Steeles if they ever compete with their brothers and they deny it.
But we know better.
Especially when one of them lets slip an admission such as the one offered recently by Brandon Steele, a 15-year-old sophomore who starts at inside linebacker for the Spartans.
"Sure I want to beat Patrick," he said. "At everything we do."
The Miltons, too, deny strife. That's before they unsheath verbal needles, long and sharp, and proceed.
"We hadn't fought in a long time," said Raypheal Milton, Giles' multitalented junior tailback. "The last time we did, I pushed Maurice down the steps."
" . . . And I came right back up those steps," Maurice said.
Things got tense down on the Steele farm occasionally, too.
Like the time that Patrick, then a sixth-grader, swiped a pair of shoes from fourth-grader Brandon when they were down at the creek together. Brandon limped home barefoot and fuming. When he tracked down Patrick in the kitchen, he hauled off with a roundhouse shot to the coconut.
As is often the case with violence, this confrontation ended badly.
"Broke the knuckle on my hand," Brandon said.
The Milton twins, 11th-graders who are identical to strangers unless their eyes are sharp enough to notice that Maurice is a half-inch taller and maybe 5 pounds heavier, agree that they don't compete anymore.
"Except I get the better grades," said Maurice, whose average is a little north of 3.0 and Raypheal's is a shade south.
Raypheal shrugs that off and says he never competes with his brother, especially on the football field.
"But you should see Maurice when he runs one up the middle [Maurice plays fullback as well as linebacker]," Raypheal said. " `Oh, Coach, my finger hurts.' Or when he's kicking an extra point [Maurice is the team's kicker], `Hey, Coach, my leg hurts.' "
The Steele farm was no place for sissies, either. Especially not with the two eldest boys, Stevie and Patrick, setting the tone. Stevie was a 1993 graduate of the high school and an accomplished football and baseball player in his own right.
"Brandon would want to be a kid and go play in the sandbox and we'd tell him, `No you're not. You're going outside to play tackle football with us,' " Patrick said.
As you might imagine, the big boys weren't exactly gentle with little Brandon.
"We'd play tackle football until I went inside crying," Brandon said. "Then my father would tell me to get my butt back out there."
Yep, Steve Steele the elder didn't have time to dab any tears. He was too busy working or coaching the little league football team that all three boys played for down the road in Pembroke. A fourth and youngest son, Micah, still plays for his father on the Pembroke team.
They called the team Stevie, Patrick and Brandon played for and their father coached the Eastern Spartans. They were the scourge of the league until they ran into the Jaycees team from over in Pearisburg. That was the team that had the Milton twins on it and Eastern never could beat them.
"Until this year, when Micah's team beat them," Brandon said.
The Miltons grew up right across the street from the high school. The Giles coaches knew about them at an early age and not only because former Spartans standout and All-Timesland running back Shawn Eaves was one of their cousins.
One day the twins were playing tennis at the high school and Giles coach Steve Ragsdale happened by.
"Want to be managers of the football team?" he said.
Indeed they would. It was a convenient way to give them a taste of what varsity football was like and work them into the weight program.
"Back then, I could not tell them apart," Ragsdale said. "We used to call either one `M & R.' "
They continued to play together until last year, when then-sophomore Raypheal was installed as the quick-footed and sweet-throwing tailback on the varsity. He had a fabulous year.
Maurice, on the other hand, was left behind to get more experience as a fullback on the JV team. The varsity was loaded at fullback with now-graduated Matt McGuire and associates and Ragsdale didn't want Maurice to sit. It was the first time the twins had been separated.
"People thought that I'd be jealous because Raypheal was on the varsity," Maurice said. "But I didn't mind."
The Steeles always played together, too, until Brandon went into the eighth grade and Patrick moved on to junior varsity.
"Eighth and ninth grade years were the ones I liked the least," Brandon said. "That was the first time I'd ever not played with one of my brothers."
Not that it's a piece of cake to play with a brother.
"Somebody does something wrong and you never let him live it down," Raypheal said, eyeing Maurice.
"No, you don't," Maurice said.
It isn't any easier with the Steeles, who share a ride 16 miles one way from the farm on the other side of Newport to the high school for class, practice or weightlifting. Plenty of time on that ride to analyze and criticize. There's also plenty of time to discuss life when they ride out to make social calls. Patrick drops off Brandon, who doesn't have his permit yet, at his girlfriend's house, then picks him up after Patrick has visited his sweetheart.
"I don't ever jump on people when they do things wrong in the game," Patrick said. "But I'll jump on Brandon."
And Brandon will give it right back. But nobody, not even he, is as rough on Patrick as Stevie was.
"Stevie would get really mad at Patrick," Brandon said. "He'd kick him, hit him, fuss at him, call him names."
Just trying to be helpful, Stevie was.
Don't get the idea that Patrick is a slack player. He's started for the varsity since he was a sophomore and goes both ways - tight end and defensive end - now and does so with distinction. Brandon, many believe, will be a dominant linebacker two years hence. He's plenty rugged as a starter now.
There's one competition that Patrick concedes to both his brothers: the one in the classroom. Not that Patrick is a bad student, but the other two are outstanding. Stevie was in the top 10 in his class; Brandon is a straight-A man who also is among the top members of the class.
Yes, sir. The Miltons swear they don't compete with each other, either. That raised the subject of double-dating.
"We never do that," Raypheal said.
Apparently, this is a sensitive subject. Although the twins won't discuss it, Maurice is said to be more of a ladies' man.
Talk about knowing how to hurt a guy . . .
Patrick and Stevie used to do that to Brandon. They, being the big boys, learned to ride bikes sooner. So they'd delight in racing around on the farm, something that little Brandon couldn't do. All he was able to do was run after them on his stubby little legs.
"And I could run faster than the bikes," Brandon said.
Competition? What competition?
by CNB