(Allondra De Rosas Lazaro)
Every summer Seniors and cousins Charlie Irvine and Sam McGill go with their male relatives on an annual summer fishing trip.
“My grandpa’s always brought us up, it’s all boys trips, so all my uncles and my cousin, my boy cousins, we go up on a fishing trip up to Canada on Lake of the Woods,” said McGill whose mom Heidi McGill, is siblings with Charlie’s dad, Troy Irvine. “And that’s a really special memory too, with Charlie and the rest of my family as well.”
Although fishing is not the only thing this pair of cousins enjoys doing. Irvine and McGill are both Tiger Football Captains and have been playing sports together since they were kids. The first sport they played together was baseball and later on flag football.
“We’ve been on the same team for football for most of our careers,” said Irvine. “I used to play baseball with him up until seventh grade, but then I joined track, and he stayed in baseball, so we’ve just been playing football together.”
McGill is in football, hockey and baseball. Irvine is in football, basketball and track and field. Irvine has committed to play football and be in track and field at Northwestern College in Iowa. Irvine went to state his junior season for long jump. He is hoping that this spring he will be able to break the school record for long jump.
“Charlie’s always been quieter,” said McGill. “He just goes with the flow, and he’s not high maintenance. He is up for whatever. But I’d also say tough, I have never, barely ever seen him show pain. He’s just tough on the football field, running track, jumping, whatever he’s doing and he plays hard in the sports he does, and he’s a very motivated person, and it’s very easy to tell,” said McGill.
When it comes to their winter and spring sports it can be difficult to support each other due to conflicting schedules. But one person who always makes it to their games is Grandpa Larry Irvine, organizer of the Lake of the Woods trip and their biggest supporter.
“He tries to get to as many sports games as he can,” said Irvine “Sometimes it’s tough. It was just last year, I had a track meet in Austin. Sam had a baseball game in Austin, and Teddy [McGill, Sam’s younger brother] and Abe [Irvine, Charlie’s younger brother] both had a baseball game in Austin,” said Irvine who sets up the story.
“He might of made it to all three [games],” said McGill who finishes his cousin’s sentence.
In football, Irvine’s prime position is fullback and McGill’s position is defensive end and right tackle.
During the game against Fairmont, Irvine suffered an injury to his ankle.
“It’s called a hip drop tackle,” said Irvine. “The kid came up behind me and grabbed my hips and pulled me down. My legs kind of buckled out, and then he landed on my ankle.”
McGill watch Irvine take the hard hit.
“I saw him on the field when he got injured, and obviously my heart was broken for him,” said McGill. “And in that moment, I didn’t know the severity of the injury, but Charlie is definitely one that never shows his pain.”
An injury like this can be devastating to an athlete but Irvine has been focusing on the positive. He has been able to learn and reflect from the experience.
“It sucks to get injured, but you have to show joy through the struggle,” said Irvine.
This experience has also taught valuable lessons to McGill too.
“The true thing that matters is your health number one, and how you are as a person,” said McGill. “It doesn’t matter how you do on a football field, [it] doesn’t matter what your record is, [it] doesn’t matter all your stats, or all the acknowledgement. It doesn’t matter. What truly matters is being healthy and being able to just live every day.”
Even though Irvine was out for the remaining season, a part of him still made it to the Gus. McGill wore Irvine’s sweat bands to represent him on the field.
“He’s a beast, because if you see him out on that field, he’s just destroying people,” said Irvine who has hyped up the team from the sidelines at each game. “Anyone that gets in his way, he’s gonna take them out.”
Football is not the only thing they shared this fall. Both were nominated on homecoming court.
“It was super exciting for me but also when Charlie got called too, I was stoked,” said McGill whose name was called first and then followed immediately by Irvine’s name. “I was clapping so loud, I was so excited. After the pep rally, the first thing I told Charlie, ‘I can’t wait to see what the family group chat has to say’.”
For both of them, getting to be on homecoming court was a way of showing their family values. The football season ended on Oct. 25 at the Gus. Albert Lea fell to Luverne 0-13. It was the first time the Tigers had a record of 7-3 since fall of 1999.
“I want my family to know that their support means everything [and] through all the bad seasons that we’ve had,” said Irvine. Their whole family is very supportive towards both boys and their athletics. “This would be the whole legacy, not just for our younger brothers, but for the rest of the school to take on. Overall, football can be a good team. It doesn’t matter if they’ve not had good seasons in the past, if you get together the right group of people, you can make a good team.”
While they are cousins, they formed a bond more like brothers on and off the field. As their senior season came to end, this might not be the last time we get to see Irvine and McGill play football together. McGill has expressed interest in Northwestern College as well.
“It could happen,” said McGill. “We could play together at another level. We might not be done yet. We’ll see…”
