Two of a Kind

A glance is all it takes.

On the field, Carly and Sydney Wilson don’t always need to speak. A quick look, a shift in movement, and the other already knows what’s coming. To everyone else, it looks like well-developed chemistry. For them, it’s something much simpler.

It’s natural.

Long before the University of Florida entered the picture – before recruiting calls and college decisions – the twins from Villanova, Pennsylvania, grew up as teammates, competitors and constant training partners.

On the Florida lacrosse team these days, that same bond has followed them to the highest level of college athletics.

“Playing together was always our plan and a dream we have shared since we were little girls,” Sydney said. “During our recruiting process, we were fortunate that the schools we were considering wanted both of us, so luckily, we never had to think about going to different schools.”

Across Florida athletics, they are not alone.

Sibling connections run through rosters in nearly every program. The Gators football team has two sets of brothers: TJ and Titus Bullard share the field alongside Corey Brown and Vernell Brown III. Track and field includes Alida and Jarno van Daalen – sister and brother from the Netherlands – as well as Kenyan distance runners Desma and Judy Chepkoech, while basketball features AJ and Isaiah Brown.

Lacrosse and gymnastics, in particular, have featured multiple sibling duos in recent years. The lacrosse team rostered Emily and Hannah Heller in 2024, Frannie and Josie Hahn in 2024-25, and the Wilson twins from 2023-26. The gymnastics team included Skye and Sloane Blakely as well as Amelia and Gabby Disidore.

The Gators baseball team also featured Cade and Rivers Kurland last season, but Cade has since transferred to LSU and Rivers currently in the transfer portal. And even the UF women's golf team featured twin sisters in 2025. Siuue and Isa Wu came to Gainesville together after growing up in Hong Kong.

Each of the current sibling pairs brings a different story, but all reflect the same idea: what it means to compete at this level with someone you’ve known your entire life – your closest friend and, often, fiercest competitor.

For the Wilson twins, staying together was never just a preference. It was central to how they envisioned their future in the sport. When the recruiting process began, the idea of separating was something they never seriously entertained.

UF gave them everything they were looking for, both on and off the field. But, more importantly, it allowed them to continue the dynamic they had built long before college.

“We felt comfortable going so far from home because we were each other’s piece of home,” Carly said.

That sense of familiarity shows up in subtle ways. It’s in the way they communicate without speaking, the way they anticipate each other’s movements and the way their connection carries through even in high-pressure moments.

“Communicating nonverbally with just a look is something we find ourselves doing constantly,” Carly said. “We know each other inside and out, which makes it very easy to identify when we need a confidence boost, advice, tough-love, motivation, and even makes it easier when we are talking through plays on the field.”

That kind of connection can be an advantage, but it also comes with its own challenges. At the college level, where every role is earned and each athlete is expected to establish an identity, the twins have had to balance being a pair while still growing as individuals.

They’ve learned to do both.

“We’ve been teammates for nearly 20 years,” Sydney said. “That balance of being sisters and individuals really just comes naturally. We really embrace being known as ‘the Wilson twins.’”

Similarly, for gymnast Gabby Disidore, having her sister Amelia – a freshman in 2026 – on the same team has added a level of comfort that goes beyond performance.

“Me and Amelia work really well together. I’m really glad that she’s here,” said Disidore, who just finished her junior season with the Gators. “We definitely have that competitive sisterhood, but we also just love to see each other succeed. … She’s like my best friend.”

That familiarity extends beyond competition and into everyday life as a college athlete for the sisters from Overland Park, Kansas. “[Amelia] understands me,” Disidore added. “I feel like I have so much more fun when she’s around.”

For many athletes, that kind of support takes time to build. For siblings, it arrives with them. That same balance between competition and support plays out on the basketball court as well. For brothers AJ and Isaiah Brown, it started long before college.

“It was like a battlefield out in the driveway,” Isaiah said. “We’d be out there late at night just battling each other.”

Those early competitions weren’t just games — they shaped who the brothers became.

“It’s big on our personality and who we are,” said AJ, who transferred to UF from Ohio prior to the 2025-26 season to play with his brother. “We’re a basketball family.”

Now teammates at Florida, that same competitive energy hasn’t gone away — it’s just taken on a new meaning. They said it fuels them, hoping to make each other better.

Because at the college level, where playing time is earned, the stakes are higher.

“The best man wins,” AJ said. “We both go out there and compete. … Whichever the coaches trust more is who they’re going to go with.”

AJ redshirted this past season while recovering from a torn labrum. Isaiah, meanwhile, started to emerge as a sophomore, averaging 5.5 points as a spark plug off the bench for the Gators – including a career-high 14 points in the win at No. 10 Vanderbilt on Jan. 17.

But even in that environment, the foundation of their relationship remains unchanged.

“With us being brothers, it’s the most wholesome competition,” Isaiah said. “If I’m winning, he’s happy for me. If he’s winning, I’m happy for him.”

On Florida’s football team, rising senior linebacker TJ Bullard described a similar feeling playing alongside his brother. TJ transferred from UCF to join his brother Titus, a redshirt sophomore defensive end, in Gainesville – where their father, Thaddeus (better known as WWE’s Titus O’Neil) played for the Gators in the 1990s. While they’re each competing for playing time, the Bullard brothers' relationship makes the long summer reps more bearable — they feel at “home.”

For Carly and Sydney Wilson, that idea has remained constant, even as everything else around them has changed.

College athletics can be demanding in ways that extend far beyond the field. Balancing academics, competition and expectations can be overwhelming, but for the Wilson twins, those challenges are something they face together.

With all of the pressure that comes with being Division I athletes, having a built-in support system shapes how they experience the game itself. They don’t have to look far for someone who understands the highs, the lows and everything in between.

They don’t take it for granted.

“With all of the challenges and struggles we face as D-I athletes,”  Sydney said, “being able to lean on each other has been the biggest blessing.”

Eventually, their time at Florida will come to an end, just as it does for every athlete. The seasons will pass, and the games will blur together. But the experience of going through it all side by side will remain.

“It really means the world,” Carly said. “Being able to share something as special as playing a Division I sport with your twin sister is an experience we will cherish for a lifetime.”

For most athletes, teammates become akin to family over time. For some at Florida, that connection was never something they had to build.

They brought it with them.