Like most teenage sisters, they sniped at one another. They
argued occasionally. They hung out in different circles.
Like most teenage sisters, they sniped at one another. They argued occasionally. They hung out in different circles.
Meg and Kelly Perkins weren’t bitter enemies before this year. But they weren’t extremely close, either.
“Now,” Meg said, “we’re best friends.”
Funny what being teammates will do to a relationship.
As the Mustangs’ field hockey team prepares for Saturday’s CCS tournament game at Los Gatos, two sisters – Kelly a sophomore, Meg a senior – find themselves nearing the end of one special year together.
“Before one of the games awhile ago, me and Meg were getting ready in the bathroom and my mom walked in and just started crying,” Kelly recalled. “Then we all started crying.”
The trio realized the curtain is quickly closing on Gilroy’s sister act, which played a big part in the ‘Stangs (14-3-2) winning their second consecutive MTAL title this season.
“It’s sad because we wanted to play on the same team for so long,” Meg said. “And now the finish is so close.”
Now, so are the siblings.
Not always, though.
GHS coach Adam Gemar and his wife, Erin, have known the sisters for years. The couple used played roller hockey with the pair’s mom, Chipper Perkins. They even gave the sisters their first field hockey sticks one Christmas.
So they witnessed plenty of the typical teenage tension between the two.
“They used to pick on each other like crazy,” Adam Gemar said. “Then Kelly would just blow up sometimes.”
When the younger sister was called up from JV a year ago to compete in the team’s one CCS game, things weren’t exactly rosy, either.
Meg admits she’s bossed Kelly around since they were little, and things were no different during those first few practices.
“Yeah, she probably didn’t like me as much last year,” Meg said with a laugh. “I pushed her a lot.”
“On some of those days,” Kelly recalled, “I didn’t really want to talk to her.”
The yelling, though, was “always in a sisterly way,” she added.
Nevertheless, Gemar said he was still surprised at the tandem’s lack of discord this season.
“Being siblings, I figured they’d fight a lot this year,” he said. “But there always doing stuff together. There’s good chemistry there. They play very well together.”
That could very well describe the entire Mustangs’ team, a squad of17 that gets along famously both on the field and off it.
Because the field hockey team “is so close, we got close,” Meg said.
They still have “their moments,” both conceded. But now during practice, they’re always partners in drills. After practices, they’re always hanging out together.
“It’s neat to have something in common like field hockey, something we can do every day together,” Meg said. “I think that’s how we’ve become better friends.”
