When senior varsity soccer player Shianne Stringer announced to her team that she committed to Southern Nazarene University, senior varsity soccer player Sydney Stringer couldn’t contain her emotions. She started screaming and running around in excitement. Sydney has already committed to the same school to play soccer at the next level.

Sydney and Shianne are cousins who have played soccer together since kindergarten and now play for the varsity soccer team.

Sydney said she’s started playing when she was three years old on her dad’s team, and Shianne joined her when they were in kindergarten.

“We’ve played soccer together our whole life – it just has brought us closer,” Sydney said.

She said they’ve been best friends ever since they were babies, and they’ve spent majority of their lives together.

Head girls soccer coach Trey Pearce said he first watched them play soccer when they were in junior high and thought they were extremely talented and hard-working. He said when they were freshmen, he learned they were actually cousins and not sisters.

Pearce said they’ve always been close and they always get excited when the other one is successful which is really cool to see as a coach.

“If Sydney scores, Shianne’s the first one there to give her a hug,” Pearce said. “And Sydney’s always building up Shianne and talking about what a good defender she is.”

Shianne said since they’re so close, they would sometimes bicker on the field and get mad at each other, but then five seconds later, they would just start talking about something else.

“Soccer kind of makes everyone really competitive,” Shianne said. “So our relationship is kind of based on competitiveness.”

Sydney was recruited first in her junior year through club soccer. Her coach started watching her high school games and shortly after reached out to Shianne as well.

“I just started talking to that school from there, and then I committed after her,” Shianne said.

Shianne said when she visited SNU, she really liked it, and the soccer was at the competitive level she wanted to play at.

“Sydney going there is more like a bonus to the school,” Shianne said.

Sydney said they did not plan on committing together but it has always been their dream since they were little.

“The older we got, we realized like how unrealistic that was,” Sydney said. “And then senior year, it was just like a shock like it was just crazy.”

Pearce said playing soccer during college is tough because you’re doing two full time jobs, being a student and an athlete. He said he’s glad they will have the support from each other in college.

Pearce said he’s proud of how much they’ve grown together and became an “unstoppable force.” They’re a big reason why they’re looking at going to the playoffs again this year.

“I’m so proud of them being able to continue their soccer career,” Pearce said. “And I can’t wait to see what’s in the future for them.”

Shianne said her younger self is really proud of her because playing college soccer has been her goal for her whole life.

“The younger us would be so happy that we’re actually [going to] college together,” Shianne said. “That was our dream.”