If you don’t have a roster handy—or perhaps if you are lucky enough to see both girls in the same place at the same time—you might think one player is competing in two winter sports at the same time.
Karly and Kayla Rebozzi are identical in their athleticism, commitment to school, in their humor but just not in their choice of sport.
Karly knocks it out on the basketball court, but doesn’t have quite the speed for soccer. Kayla has a unique gift of speed and strength well suited for soccer, but hasn’t really gotten into the idea of basketball.
Not that they haven’t tried the other sport.
“We both tried to do our own sport, but we kept hitting heads,” Karly said. “But when we chose our own sports we kept to it.”
Karly started basketball at the age of 8 while Kayla started soccer at the age of 4.
“One year we all decided to play soccer together, and we’re like, OK, we can’t do this,” Kayla said. “Then we started basketball together, and we were like, yeah, we’re not playing the same sport.”
They are highly competitive girls both in sport and out of it.
Last year, both girls’ teams made deep runs in the CCS playoffs, with both going to the quarterfinals of their respective sports.
Both are strong students who look up to family as influences for how to conduct themselves in the classroom.
“I always wanted to be the basketball player (my cousin) was and the student athlete she was,” Karly said. “That was probably my biggest influence more than anything.”
Karly said her cousin was someone who maintained all As through high school and went on to thrive in the college classroom as well, earning a doctorate.
She said she is averaging a 3.5 in the classroom, including taking several AP classes.
Kayla started soccer at her mom’s suggestion and was also influenced by her cousin.
“My cousin bought me my first pair of shoes and shin guards,” Kayla said. “She played soccer at Live Oak and I wanted to be just like her, just like (Karly) wanted to be like our other cousin.”
Her uncle helped to coach her up in soccer and it stuck.
“I still now want to be like her. She went on to get her degree in psychology and I want to get my degree in psychology,” Kayla said.
Kayla said she wants to eventually work with special needs children when she gets out of school.
And it’s going to be the positive attitude that both girls have that will get them there.
Karly said she wasn’t sure if she was going to play basketball this year just because she wanted to make sure she concentrated on school work.
“It’s my senior year, and I’m not ready to give up on my sport,” Karly said.
And it is hard to give up a sport she’s been good at and really loved since middle school.
She gives a lot of credit to her middle school coach for helping her realize what kind of a player she was as well as helping her through some tough times.
“He made me realize what I was able to give on the court and that was my speed,” Karly said. “I was a pest almost. I was taking on that one girl that no one could guard.”
She is still in contact with him, even after being out of Murphy for six years.
Kayla likewise didn’t know if she was going to play soccer because she wanted to focus on things outside of the sport.
However, her teammates convinced her to stay for her senior year.
Kayla knows it will require some heavy lifting to achieve her academic goals, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
She is an aspiring lifter, who set her personal best at a deadlift at 265 pounds a year ago.
