For years 16-year-old Ben Fetsch stood on the sidelines watching his younger brother Nick do his thing on the pitch, cutting through opposing defenders like a hot knife through butter before unleashing a highlight reel strike that left the opposing keeper rooted to the spot in awestruck bewilderment.
Likewise Nick, 14, did the same, watching in admiration as his older brother made short work of his competition before either sending the ball forward for a wonderful assist or taking a precision shot from distance that ultimately resulted in a goal.
Now, however, the two don’t have to watch one another from the sidelines.
Instead, for the first time ever, the brothers share the same pitch; something they’ve both been waiting for, for a long, long while. “I’ve been playing soccer for 12 years, and this is the first time we’ve actually been on the same team together,” offered the elder Fetsch brother, Ben. “We’ve practiced together and even played at home and stuff with our other siblings, but never on a team. It’s pretty sweet.”
Nick, too, is enjoying the time he is spending on the field with his older brother, especially because he is now the recipient of those slick, perfectly timed passes that he once enjoyed watching from the sidelines. “It’s great to play with him. He’s such a good player,” said Nick. “He always finds a way to get the ball to me. It’s easy for him because we have a lot of chemistry.
“He knows where I am most of the time because of our chemistry so he finds me and I take the shots.”
The two also have an added advantage in that they have an ample amount of time to prepare their own, secret game plans. “A lot of the time we talk about what we’re going to do before the game,” mentioned Ben. “For example I’ll get the ball to him and he’ll make a nice run and then send the ball back to me for a nice shot and we’ll have planned that before the game.”
However that ample amount of time to prepare can also be a disadvantage. With both Ben and Nick being so competitive and so close in age, the two brothers admittedly have developed a sometimes not-so-friendly rivalry. “We’re really competitive and we fight a lot when we’re playing soccer at home,” admitted Ben, continuing, “we get over it of course, but we do have a rivalry.”
Ben’s brother Nick also admitted that the two sometimes don’t see eye-to-eye. “Yeah we have a rivalry. Sometimes it gets pretty out of hand, but usually it’s okay,” laughed Nick, adding that the rivalry is just one of the things that makes the two so good at their chosen sport. “I think it’s good to have a rivalry with him. It makes us both better. We get angry and we try even harder to beat each other and that actually makes us better.”
That competitiveness and drive to beat one another is sometimes evident on the field as well, where the brothers are first and second on the Saints in goals scored this season, with the younger Nick slightly ahead of his older brother Ben.
However Ben says that he doesn’t mind that Nick has more goals than him. “He’s a striker, that’s what he’s supposed to do,” said Ben. “I score, but I also get the ball to him to score, so when he scores I usually get the assist.”
Nick echoed his older brother, saying: “He’s usually the one setting me up for the goals, so I don’t think he has a problem with me scoring more, although I know he likes to score as well.”
Unfortunately for the brothers however, this wonderful season where they both play for the same team is the only time they’ll actually find themselves on the same pitch.
After this year, Ben will graduate and move on to university, where he hopes to play soccer for the Huskies, or anyone else interested in his services.
Meanwhile Nick will still have three more years of Saint soccer to play.
But although the moment is only fleeting, rest assured neither brother will forget the moments they spent on the same field, against the same opposition, playing for the same team.
