Excitement is high in Pierce City this season as the Eagle football team is expected to improve on last year’s 7 and 4 mark where they lost in the district semifinals to Thayer.
And one big reason for the optimism rests with one family in particular.
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Eleven miles north of Pierce City just off Interstate 44 is the Kleiboeker farm with three boys who account for six of the Eagles 22 starting positions. Sophomore Jackson plays receiver and defensive secondary, senior Donell is a linebacker and running back and senior Dallas is a linebacker and receiver. So the Kleiboeker family is a key pipeline to the Eagles success.
“I have to admit there’s a bit of pride in knowing that you’re family has that level of contribution to the community and school, ” said the boys father, John.
And it goes further than that. Donell and Dallas are twins who also play baseball, basketball, track, earn all-conference honors in sports, make the National Honor society, and take part in the FFA and other school and church organizations together.
So you might think that Donell and Dallas enjoy each other’s company.
“Depends on his attitude on the day, ” Donell jokes.
“Oh yeah. He always likes to blame it on me,” Dallas responds.
And there’s also a rumor that the twins are very competitive.
“Extremely,” says Donell.
“Not at all, ” Dallas retorts.
“They fight like cats and dogs,” Pierce City head coach Brad Hocker said.
“Mostly it’s just rubbing it in when one does top the other one,” explains younger brother Jackson. ” Like a little bowling game. They’ll hold each other to that for months to come.”
“Before they were even born there was something going on because there would be times she’d say ‘look at this’ and we thought there were aliens in there,” John said about he and his wife Robyn’s experiences with the twins before the birth. ” They were just going at it. I’ve got a feeling they were wrestling already.”
“For the most part we show each other no mercy at all,” Dallas admits. “But I think in the long run it’s going to be good for us.”
It’s certainly paid off on the field where Donell was the team’s leading tackler last year and Dallas the leading receiver. And it’s obvious that this bunch comes from good stock. Raised on a farm stressing family, faith, discipline and hard work, their day can start as early as 5:30 in the morning with chores and end after 10 o’clock at night coming back from a road game.
“The stuff that they do I would have a hard time doing it,” coach Hocker said. ” They’re busy all the time.”
“Free time is wasted time in my opinion,” Dallas says as his brother nods in agreement.
And as much as they pick on each other, you can’t deny the special bond that twins have.
“You’ve heard of the twin language? They did do that when they were little,” Robyn recalls. ” They would jabber something and the other one would repeat the exact same thing and they would just laugh. I had no idea what they were saying but they did.”
And that part hasn’t changed to this day.
