ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Cliches about twins developed because of brothers like Aaron and Anthony Myers.
One thinks a thought; the other voices it before the first can open his mouth.
``Happens all the time,'' Anthony said.
Hard to tell them apart because they never are.
``We go everywhere together,'' said Aaron, a minute older and a shade taller.
``You see one and you see the other,'' Anthony said.
You scrap with one and you scrap with both.
When you're on a team that opposes Giles High School in either basketball or football, you're faced with double-trouble, dual-dynamite, a twin-killing.
``We make each other better ... '' Aaron started.
``... because we're always competing with each other,'' Anthony finished.
They're 6-foot-2 athletes, seniors both, and identical twins, although there's not much identical about them.
Aaron does the shooting, firing at will from the perimeter on the way to 11 points per game. Anthony does the passing. His 133 feeds last year set a school single-season record. He's 33 shy of the school's career record.
How come one wants to pull the trigger and the other wants to pass the ammunition?
Stumps them.
``I just liked to pass and he just liked to shoot,'' Anthony said.
Anthony flat loves football. Two years running for a team that won 22 of 25 games, he was as consistent a Spartan as there was. A glue-fingered receiver on offense and a cold-hearted hitter of a defensive end, his coach Steve Ragsdale said of him, ``There is no way to convey the value that Anthony Myers has been to this team.
Aaron, too, was a good one as an end. When they could get him to play, which turned out to be for the varsity only his senior year. The two previous campaigns, he had another agenda.
``Just lazy, I guess,'' he said.
``That's about right,'' Anthony said.
Their paths diverge during springtime as well. Anthony is the soccer player. Aaron prefers baseball, which he may finally get around to actually playing for the varsity in his last go-round several months hence.
Right now, they're a hard-to-tell-apart spark off the bench for the 3-1 Spartans.
``They're both our sixth man,'' Giles coach John Howlett said.
Howlett mixed them in slowly because of their late arrival from football, first bringing Aaron off the bench to play power forward and Anthony to play small forward. The next game Aaron played small forward and Anthony off guard.
Nobody knows how long this arrangement is going to hold because junior Robbie Claytor has done a splendid job at the point, averaging 4.3 assists per outing. In fact, Howlett likes Claytor and Anthony on the floor together.
``That gives me two good passers,'' he said. ``Anthony is going to pass well no matter where I play him.''
Giles has the potential to be excellent this season and players and coaches alike are taking the attitude that anything other than a Three Rivers District championship won't be good enough. Only two players are smaller than 6 feet and Giles has a talented and athletic front line of 6-4 John King (11.3 ppg, 7.8 rpg), left-hander Josh Stephens (10 ppg), and junior Adam Jones (7.5 rpg), not to mention a very promising 6-2 sophomore named Jason Edwards, who is averaging 7.8 points per game.
The Myers twins were central figures for Giles' past two basketball teams, but they don't take what they're doing now as a secondary role.
``If it isn't broke, don't fix it,'' Anthony said. ``We don't mind at all coming off the bench.'' Added Aaron: ``The other players have been out here two weeks longer than we have. We have to play with them rather than them with us.''
Besides, Howlett depends on their insights from the bench as events unfold to start a game.
``Talk about coaches on the floor ... '' Howlett said.
You learn something when you play together as long as they have.
Said Anthony: ``We always know where each other is.''
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RAY COX/Staff. Giles High School basketball standoutsby CNBAaron (left) and Anthony Myers: "We make each other better ...
"Aaron started." ... ``... because we're always competing with each
other,'' Anthony finished. color.