MISSOULA — Oftentimes, we see siblings, or twins, competing for the same teams in high school.
But a brother and sister leading their respective programs? It's not quite as common, but that's what Connor and Lauren Dick are doing for Missoula Hellgate's basketball teams this season.
The Hellgate girls are 17-1 while the boys are 15-3 heading into the Western AA Divisionals this week in Helena.
And the siblings are both captains for the Knights basketball teams this year.
"It's been really fun. I'm really glad that he's close enough in age to me so that I get to have this experience with him and share this experience with him," Lauren said. "And I'm really proud of him and his teammates and what they've accomplished this year."
Lauren is a senior while Connor is a junior.
That year apart played a big role in the latter's drive once he got into high school after watching his sister play as one of the many freshmen who saw big minutes for Hellgate's varsity program three years ago.
"It gave me so much confidence and I knew watching her that it wasn't going to be easy coming in as a young kid," Connor said. "It's not that easy but she really was kind of a leader of that team as a freshman and so that's kind of moved me to be a leader as kind of a younger guy. I look up to her in a lot of different ways."
Connor's play this season comes after missing his entire sophomore sports year due to a knee injury sustained in the summer before.
While he sat on the bench and healed in 2020-21, his sister entered the season with a gesture that was meant to be a joke, but carried sentimental value in the end.
"I changed my number to his number (No. 10) last year just to kind of show that he's kind of on the court because he didn't get to play last year and I know basketball's really important to him and it's important to my family," Lauren said.
"That was awesome to see her do that and she's still wearing No. 10. People ask who had it first, I say it was me. I say that as a joke," Connor added. "That was awesome of her."
And of course, there's sibling rivalries.
So how about those 1-on-1 games? Who wins?
"Me. Just kidding, probably him," Lauren said with a laugh. "Once he got taller than me, he'll just swat me and stuff."
"I want to say probably seventh grade is when I started to do well when I started to get a little bigger," Connor added with a grin. "But yeah, I guess she probably did kick my butt for the younger years. She was older then I finally started to grow a little bit so yeah I guess she's probably right there."
And there's plenty they've learned from each other too.
"It's funny because we're kind of opposite players and similar players at the same time," Connor said. "Her defense is about as good as it gets and my defense needs work so I kind of feed off of that. I'm always teaching her moves, she's always teaching me defense, we learn off each other for sure."
But now, with March here, it's postseason basketball time in Class AA, and the siblings will now lead the Knights into the playoffs with big goals and aspirations over the next two weeks.
"I think it's really important to all of us to do as much as we can to get a chance to win and just give it all we got, no regrets. Finish strong, as strong as we possibly can. We're ready, we've been working hard so proud of all my teammates."
