What it’s like to be on the same D1 team as your sibling

With only seven sets of siblings on the same varsity team at BC, it’s a pretty unique thing to be able to call your sibling a teammate.

Sailing tops the list, having three of the seven sibling-sets, with rowing, fencing and hockey holding the rest. We sat down with the Lynns and the McDonalds of sailing and rowing to talk about what it’s like for them to have a sibling on their team.

Hannah Lynn (Junior, Environmental Geoscience, Sailing) and Peter Lynn (Freshman, Undeclared CSOM, Sailing)

From Marblehead, MA, the Lynns are the only brother-sister teammates in all of BC Athletics. They are the first of their family to attend BC, however their dad was an All-American sailor at Tufts (the sailing gene runs in the family).

Here’s what they had to say about their experience sailing together:

Did you compete together in high school? 

Hannah: Yeah, we over lapped for 2 years on our high school team.

Did you want to go to BC because of your sister? 

Peter: I wouldn’t say because Hannah is here, I already liked BC before she came, my friends actually thought I wouldn’t want to come because she was here.

What was your reaction when you found out your brother was coming to BC?

Hannah: I was pretty excited, but it was not super climatic because he had wanted to come here for a long time and he is a very good sailor, he also had the grades to get in.

Would you call your parents superfans? Do they do any crazy sports parents things?

Hannah: Not really, they come to watch local regattas, but our dad still has a thing against BC sailing from his days at Tufts. Also our mom is a BU hockey fan.

Peter: They support us, but they are not really involved in other sports here.

Do you have any pre/post game traditions with your sibling?

Peter: No, we don’t. We only got to sail together once this fall.

What is your favorite part or memory of having your sibling as a teammate?

Hannah: I feel like I have to be a role model so it makes me push myself in the gym and academically, which has paid off, I had a really good last semester, it makes me feel like a leader on the team.

Peter: The best part is having a connection to the team before I came here; I kind of knew what was going on with them from Hannah. I had met some of the team before I came so I felt close right when I got here, which is a really unique experience.

Do you think being on the same team has brought you closer as siblings?

Hannah: I think it allowed us to stay close instead of drifting apart, which could have happened if we weren’t together.

Peter: We’ve always been close, being on the team doesn’t make us spend time together more than we would, we see each other at practice but she lives off campus and I live on upper so we don’t see each other outside of sailing very often.

Look out for them on the water next year and wish them a great 2016 season this fall!

Caitlain McDonald (Sophomore, Finance, Rowing) and Meaghan McDonald (Freshman, Finance, Rowing)

Not far from home in Newton, MA the McDonalds are one of the two sets of siblings on the Women’s Rowing team. They come from a long line of BC alum, both of their parents, an aunt and their grandmother were all Eagles. This is what they think about rowing together at BC:

Did you compete together in high school? 

Meaghan: Yes we did at CRI. (*BC shares a boathouse with Community Rowing Inc!*)

Did you want to go to BC because of your sister? 

Meaghan: I did not want to come here because of Caitlain but we had been on the same team in high school so it wasn’t different.

What was your reaction when you found out your sister was coming to BC?

Caitlain: I was really excited! We were always really close growing up so I was excited that I’d be seeing Meg at school and on the same team again.

What is your favorite part or memory of having your sibling as a teammate?

Caitlain: In high school we were in the same boat for a while and were able to race together – our parents especially liked that. We also drove to and from practice together it was fun to spend that time together.

Do you think being on the same team has brought you closer as siblings?

Caitlain: Definitely, we are very different but this is something that we share so it’s something that we have in common.

The McDonald’s will be racing together this spring! You can see them in their first home race against BU on March 26th on the Charles!