Maslanka brothers may be twins, but they are not alike
Gilroy – Shane and Tyler Maslanka are twins with almost nothing in common other than a last name and a love for football.
They don’t even look alike. Shane is a bit stockier at 5-11, 180 pounds and with shorter hair. Tyler is thinner at 6-0, 175 and with Kenny Gee-type of locks.
Whereas Shane starts at fullback for Gilroy, Tyler is an outside linebacker. Shane is an extrovert; Tyler is an introvert. Shane is more the creative musical type; Tyler is the more analytical, outdoorsy type. Tyler is more organized and serious about school. Shane does things more by the seat of his pants and waits until the last minute to finish his schoolwork.
“Yeah, they’re very different,” said Greg Garcia, the Mustangs’ defensive coordinator, “but they’re great people to be around. You can have a lot of fun with both of them because they don’t take anything personal.”
Shane showed a mischievous side as a youngster. He can’t remember whether he was 10 or 11 when older brother Matt, now 22, goaded him into stealing a Brittney Spears cardboard cutout from a local McDonald’s. Shane was seen grabbing it by the manager, who gave chase in his car and caught him.
“He’s always getting into trouble; I’m the innocent one,” said Tyler in mock disgust.
“He does stuff, too; he just doesn’t get caught,” Shane said. “I get caught. Tyler is actually pretty boring. He plays on the safe side.”
They may be different and cut up on each other, but they are there for each other as well as younger brother, Jake, a sophomore starting cornerback on Gilroy’s junior varsity football team.
And they are two integral pieces of the Mustangs who try to get their season turned around at 7:30pm today when they host powerful Serra. Whereas the twins like to kid with each other, they are serious on the football field. As seniors, they feel a responsibility to help Gilroy (1-2) turn its season around.
“After our last game (a 49-0 defeat at Oak Grove), I was so embarrassed I wanted to go home and not come back to school,” Shane said. “Even though we lost, if we had played our game we wouldn’t have been blown out.”
“Once things stop going our way, it seems like everyone is quiet and not everyone is giving their best,” Tyler added.
“We’ve put in eight months and endured 6am workouts,” Shane said. “Most seniors feel we didn’t put in all that work to lose. It’s not all about winning, but we’ve been beating ourselves.”
Obviously, the twins are not in complete disagreement with each other. And yet they definitely follow a different set of rules.
“We’re exact opposites, if you think about it,” Tyler said.
“He’s serious; I am a clown,” said Shane, finishing his brother’s thought. “He plays by the rules; I go to the beat of my own drum.”
“That’s the way it’s been our whole life,” Tyler said. “We’ll be in the car ready to go somewhere and he’ll come running out at the last moment with his backpack a mess.”
Tonight, they share a common goal – helping Gilroy be a more efficient, competitive football team.
