As the first-year head coach of the Kearny High School girls’ soccer team, Mike Sylvia was still learning all the names of players on his roster when he stumbled across a dilemma.
Sylvia was introduced to the Schivel twins, Gabriela and Tatyanne, born one minute apart, with Gabriela the elder.
The two sisters claim that they’re not identical twins, but it’s next to impossible to tell the difference between the two.
“They both have the same haircut and everything,” Sylvia said. “They came to practice with the masks on and I said to myself, ‘How can I tell?’ I noticed that they wore different cleats, so I said, ‘That’s fine, but you can’t change cleats.’ It’s so hard to tell the difference, more so than I let on.”
“Once you get to know us, you can tell the difference,” Gabriela Schivel said.
“It’s really a lot of fun,” Tatyanne Schivel said. “We share each other’s thoughts. We have inside jokes that we tell to each other. We fight over the dumbest things, like who gets to use the bathroom first.”
Tatyanne said that the sisters have a lot of the same interests in hip hop music and soccer teams.
“We’re Brazilian, so we have to like Brazil,” Tatyanne Schivel said.
Across the Passaic River, there’s another set of soccer playing twins – and these two are indeed identical, although it took one to enter the world a little after the other.
“There are 20 minutes between us,” said Rachel Echevarria the elder of the Nutley High School girls’ soccer twins. “It’s always fun to have someone there alongside me. We borrow each other’s clothes. We help each other with homework. Since I’m older, I always tell her what to do, but it’s always good to have someone to do stuff together.”
Rachel and twin sister Rebecca share a lot of the same interests, like the Marvel movie series, watching movies on Netflix and listening to the rapper Travis Scott.
“I listen to music way much more than she does,” Rebecca Echevarria said.
It also helps that both play soccer and basketball.
“We’ve been playing sports since we were little,” Rebecca Echevarria said. “It’s great to always have someone I can train with. It’s really beneficial to have my sister around.”
But the two do have their differences.
“Rachel doesn’t like condiments,” Rebecca Echevarria said. “She doesn’t like mayonnaise. I find that to be really weird.”
The two are pranksters as well, using their identical status to their benefit.
“We were in seventh grade and we pretended to be each other for the entire day,” Rebecca Echevarria said. “We had our teacher going. It was a lot of fun.”
“It’s really funny seeing people’s reactions,” Rachel Echevarria said.
Nutley girls’ soccer head coach Mike DiPiano struggled with the difference for a bit.
“When they were younger, I could not tell them apart,” DiPiano said. “My daughter (Mia) is a year younger and she picked up that they wore different colors. So that’s how I started. Then I picked up different mannerisms and how they talk. It’s just little things. One wears a different color headband. That’s how I can tell.”
It’s safe to say that all four twins – all of whom are juniors, by the way — had their hand in their respective team’s successes this season.
The Schivel sisters helped Kearny attain a 10-1 season, capturing the championship of the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic League. Gabriela Schivel had five goals and one assist, while Tatyanne Schivel had three goals and three assists. Gabriela is a center midfielder and Tatyanne plays more of a wing slot.
“Gabby has taken to the center midfield slot and has never let it go,” Sylvia said. “She has the responsibility to lead the attack, then get back and defend. It’s nice to have someone who is so consistent with her play. It takes a lot of the pressure off everyone else. She reads the game well and creates opportunities for others. She has a real intelligent soccer brain. She sees things that are happening in the game and she’s excellent with that.
Added Sylvia, “Taty has been so amazing this year. She’s done everything we ask of her. She plays right next to her sister and when we needed her, she goes right in the back. She has been a gift for us. She has that flexibility and versatility.”
The Schivel twins are close, but remember, they are sisters.
“We both have our days,” Tatyanne Schivel said. “We’re both fiercely competitive. We know where each other are on the field.”
“We might fight on the field, but it’s only because we want each other to be better players,” Gabriela Schivel said. “I know where she wants the ball.”
The Echevarria sisters helped Nutley to an 8-7-1 record, playing in the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division, the toughest girls’ soccer league in the state. Rachel Echevarria is a defender, but Rebecca had seven goals and six assists.
Rachel Echevarria loves playing with her sister.
“I can always trust her with the ball,” Rachel Echevarria said. “It’s really enjoyable. When we do something, we’re able to do it together.”
“When we’re playing, it’s really a lot of fun watching her do what she does,” Rebecca Echevarria said. “She always picks me up. It’s great having that kind of support system all the time.”
As they say, having two is better than one, but…
“I can’t say which one is better,” Sylvia said. “It’s a very tough decision. It’s nice when you have a really great player. Well, then we have a clone. They are so polite. They’re the nicest kids you’d ever want to meet.”
Although next year might be the last time you see the Schivel twins together.
“I’m pretty sure we’re going to go different ways,” said Gabriela Schivel, who hopes to become a veterinarian. “It’s something we’re not even thinking about yet. We have one more year.”
Tatyanne hopes to become a physical education teacher.
“Being a coach is something I always thought I could do,” Tatyanne Schivel said.
The Echevarria sisters would like to play soccer in college, but they also think they might separate at the next level.
“There’s probably a good chance we’re not going to the same college,” Rebecca Echevarria said.
DiPiano believes both could play at the collegiate level.
“Rachel has been playing the game a long time and she knows what to do,” DiPiano said. “She can defend on the next level. She has good feet and good vision. She has a knack for the ball as well. She does a really good job of taking the ball and moving forward. She’s a smart defender. She’s very witty.
Added DiPiano, “Rebecca played up top for most of the season, but we did move her back when we had to. I hope to see what she can do next year fully healthy. They’re both good athletes. I remember when they were coming in as freshmen, I knew we were getting two good players and two is always better than one. It’s always easier to fill out the roster.”
Even when it’s hard to distinguish one over the other. Can you imagine how tough it would be if Nutley managed to play Kearny next season? There would be twins all over the pitch.
CAPTIONS
Kearny twin sisters Gabriela (left) and Tatyanne Schivel (right) are two of the reasons why the Kardinals had a 10-1 record this season. Photo by Jim Hague
Nutley twin sisters Rebecca (left) and Rachel Echevarria (right) fed off each other to help the Maroon Raiders place second in the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division. Photo by Jim Hague
Nutley junior defender Rachel Echevarria
Nutley junior midfielder Rebecca Echevarria
Kearny junior midfielder Gabriela Schivel
Kearny junior midfielder Tatyanne Schivel
Photos by Jim Hague
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Jim Hague | Observer Sports Writer
Sports Writer Jim Hague was with The Observer for 20+ years — and his name is one of the most recognizable in all of sports journalism. The St. Peter’s Prep and Marquette alum kicked off his journalism career post Marquette at the Daily Record, where he remained until 1985. Following shorts stints at two other newspapers, in September 1986, he joined the now-closed Hudson Dispatch, where he remained until 1991, when its doors were finally shut.
It was during his tenure at The Dispatch that Hague’s name and reputation as one of country’s hardest-working sports reporters grew. He won several New Jersey Press Association and North Jersey Press Club Awards in that timeframe.
In 1991, he became a columnist for The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers — and he remains with them to this day.
In addition to his work at The Observer and The Hudson Reporter, Hague is also an Associated Press stringer, where he covers Seton Hall University men’s basketball, New York Red Bulls soccer and occasionally, New Jersey Devils hockey.
He’s also doing work at The Morristown Daily Record, the very newspaper where his journalism career began.
During his career, he also worked for Dorf Feature Services, which provided material for the Star-Ledger. While there, he covered the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets.
Hague is also known for his announcing work — and he’s done PA work for Rutgers Newark and NJIT.
Hague is the author of the book “Braddock: The Rise of the Cinderella Man.”