By Lee Davis
Through the years, Vestavia Hills football coach Buddy Anderson and his staff have been pretty successful at figuring things out on the football field.
But senior Rebel defensive linemen James and Jacob Edwards are good at keeping people confused. Even on the practice field, the coaches aren’t sure which of the Edwards brothers they are working with at a particular moment.
“It happens all the time,” said James, who is the older sibling by 47 minutes. “People always are confusing us. When the coaches aren’t sure, they just call us ‘Edwards.’”
Also adding to the potential for a mix-up is their both playing in the defensive line for Vestavia. James plays end; Jacob is a tackle. Both are leaders in a highly touted unit that held powerful Homewood to only three points in the season opener.
“The fact we both play in the defensive line adds to why people can’t tell us apart,” Jacob said. “If one of us was a quarterback, it might not be as bad.”
Some identical twins look almost exactly alike as young children, but begin to look different by the time they are teenagers. That’s not the case for the Edwards brothers.
“We looked a lot alike when we were little, and most people still think we do,” James said. “I guess we always will look almost the same.”
There was a time when James and Jacobs weren’t above using their looks to pull school pranks. During their freshman year, they actually swapped classes.
“We got caught doing it in a freshman math class,” James said, laughing. “At first the teacher was pretty mad, but then everybody laughed about it.”
The football field and the classroom aren’t the only places where the Edwardses make others see double. They also star in wrestling and lacrosse. Any guess what topics dominate the dinner table conversation at the Edwards household?
“We talk sports a lot,” Jacob said. “Mainly we try to support and help each other as much as we can.”
Being twins can be great fun, but both the Edwards brothers are serious about their final season of football at Vestavia.
“We had a good team (9-3) last year,” James said. “But we want to step it up this year and go further in the playoffs. We’ve got some good players on this team and if we work hard, we can do it.”
Anderson may be in his 39th season as head coach of the Rebels, but Jacob said the coach relates to his players today as well as he did decades ago.
“Coach Anderson is truly a player’s coach,” he said. “He always looks out for us. We know he’s going to have our backs, regardless of what happens.”
Both of the Edwards brothers hope for an opportunity to play football or lacrosse following graduation this spring.
“We’d be happy to play either one,” James said. “We’re just going to try to have a good senior year and see what happens.”
In the meantime, both brothers are savoring their senior years of high school.
“It’s really flown by,” Jacob said. “I can’t really believe we’re almost at the end.”
James and Jacobs Edwards’ high school careers may be drawing to a close, but the fun of being twins is probably just beginning.
