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Panther twins will continue basketball careers together at Urbana University
May 20, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Pictured left - Fairbanks senior twins Nora (left) and Emily Boerger sign letters of intent to play basketball at Urbana University. They are pictured with their parents Donald and Deborah and back row, former FHS head coach Lori Phelps and assistant coach Brock Oakes.
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Since they were born, identical twins Nora and Emily Boerger have been inseparable.
From going to school together the past 12 years to playing the same sports, you can’t keep them apart and you certainly can’t tell them apart.
For the past four years, Nora and Emily have been standout athletes at Fairbanks High School in several sports.
And with a couple of quick strokes of pens, they will stay together while they play basketball at Urbana University.
The twins had looked at a couple of other schools, notably Heidelberg and Earlham College in Indiana. However, they chose Urbana because it was very close to home.
Nora earned an academic scholarship that will fully pay for her tuition, while Emily is also earning scholarship money.
The girls started playing sports at the same time, starting with soccer and softball as youngsters and basketball in the seventh grade.
“We’ve always been on the same team,” said Nora. “That’s just how it’s always been.”
The Boerger girls will begin their collegiate careers by working out in open gyms with the Blue Knights this summer.
While they had solid high school careers - Emily averaged 14.7 points and Nora averaged 7.3 points per game this past season - they know their games will have to improve.
“We’re going to have to get stronger,” said Emily. “And the college game is much faster and more disciplined than in high school.”
Former FHS coach Lori Phelps, who guided the Lady Panthers during the twins’ four-year careers, said, “It was a difficult task for them to decide on what school would fit them both academically and basketball-wise.”
“They looked at a couple of different schools but they’ve worked hard and I think their hard work will pay off at Urbana.”
The twins’ similarities will continue at Urbana. Not only will they be vying for playing time in the Blue Knight backcourt but they will also follow the same course of study.
Both will major in exercise science, with the goal of becoming physical therapists.
Their lives have been so intertwined that selecting their future was in one way very easy.
“We never once gave any thought to going our separate ways,” said Emily. “We always knew we wanted to go to the same school.”
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