Area twins have D1 schools seeing double

For the Bogumil twins, everything is a competition, even studying.

Hunter and Haille, both 17, born two minutes apart (Haille is older), would prepare for vocabulary quizzes with flashcards, testing each other to see who could spell the words faster. Haille would usually be victorious in those battles.

Hunter won similar games involving math flashcards. Neither Bogumil ever backed down from a challenge, academic or athletic.

It shouldn’t be surprising, in hindsight, that the twins responded well to a challenge their father, Jeff Bogumil, laid down when they were in seventh grade. It was about college, Jeff said. He would pay for them to go to any school in Florida, he said. If they wanted to attend an out-of-state school, however, they would have to earn their way through a scholarship.

The kids took that to heart as they grew into their sports, Hunter pitching for The Out-of-Door Academy and Haille swimming for Lakewood Ranch High. On Nov. 8, the senior twins saw the rewards of their hard work. Hunter signed with La Salle University and Haille with Stony Brook University, both Division 1 schools.

Neither twin expected to reach the D1 level. Hunter started high school as a "5-foot-nothing pitcher," not exactly the frame colleges love. Haille prods at her brother by saying he gravitated to baseball because he was “too skinny to play football.” As he worked with coach Ted Rose at Total Baseball Academy to improve his fundamentals, he found himself growing. The growth didn’t stop. Hunter now stands 6-foot-5, and the coaches at La Salle called him “as projectable as it gets,” Joe said, meaning they expect him to fill out that frame and develop more strength and control.

Haille, too, didn’t see herself as a D1 athlete coming into high school, or even this season. Not because of her height; she’s 5-foot-11, and for a long time thought she would be taller than her brother. No, she lacked confidence because she saw swimmers younger and faster than she was getting offers. She had only small schools take interest, until Stony Brook came calling — literally.

“Listening while she was talking on the phone, I have never heard her so happy,” Hunter said.

Haille couldn’t contain herself and danced a jig while talking to her new school.

I’ve interviewed a few sets of twins in the past. The Bogumils are the first to claim they’re opposites in every way. Haille is artistic, drawing in her free time, and Hunter never had interest in that. He’s into hip-hop, she’s into pop. They can’t even agree on sports anymore, the one thing that used to bond them. Haille forced Hunter to play flag football with her throughout their youth, even though he didn’t want to play.

“I wanted to play all the same sports he did,” she said.

Now though, the twins say they haven’t watched each other’s games in years. That’s partly because of their own busy schedules, but it’s also because of their disdain for swimming and baseball, respectively. Despite the differences in personality and preferences, the twins do feel a connection to each other. They openly reminisce about vacations in Connecticut when they were the only young people around and so thankful to have similar-aged friend.

La Salle and Stony Brook are three and a half hours apart by train. The twins plan to visit each other often, they said.

“I’m not leaving you alone there,” Haille said to Hunter.

For all their past competitions, “Who signed with the better school?” is one question they feel content calling a tie.