A Tale of Two 22s

Thomas and Rona Reeves have two children who are star athletes with 4.0 or better grade point averages. Both kids also are playing basketball today for a chance to reach the Georgia High School Association’s Class AAAAA Final Four. Life is great in the Reeves household, right?

Well, yes and no.

Tevin Reeves is a 6-foot-1 senior guard for the Wildcats whose team is playing at the University of West Georgia at 5:30 p.m. today. Amber Reeves is a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard for the Warriors. Her team also is playing today at 4 p.m., but 157 miles away at Fort Valley State University.

The start time for the two games is separated by only 90 minutes, making it impossible for both parents to see both games. But this is nothing new for this busy family who has juggled basketball schedules all season.

During the regular season, when both Tevin and Amber played on the same day–a normal occurrence–both Thomas and Rona would start at Amber’s North Cobb game.

“Normally I will jet out of Amber's game and rush to Wheeler's game,” Thomas said. “Normally I get there and the Wheeler guys are warming up. Sometimes it's close; sometimes it's not as close.”

Thomas will record Tevin’s game and share it with family and friends, but not until all four members of the Reeves family sit down and watch the game together.

When both teams play at the same time, as they will today, the family relies on text messaging to stay up to date. Each parent will send the other a score update at the end of each quarter.

It’s a system the family has just about perfected, but it has taken time and a lot of work. It starts with both basketball schedules on the refrigerator. Then the family maps out the locations of games and the quickest routes. The plan has been drawn up and worked over with great care. The Reeveses know just about every detail of the surrounding area when it comes to the two team’s schedules.

“We know where each team is playing, and it kind of makes it easy because Wheeler has a smaller region,” Rona said. “They don't have as many games as North Cobb. And Tevin plays with Wheeler, who many times may go out of town. It kind of made it easy this year for us because Tevin was out of state playing and Amber was still playing locally.”

A great example occurred over the holiday break. Wheeler traveled to national tournaments in Hawaii and Myrtle Beach while North Cobb played locally in Atlanta.

The Reeves family caught another break when the snowstorm hit the area in January. Because of makeup games, North Cobb played a Wednesday game–typically high school games are on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday–and Wheeler played a Monday game. That gave Tevin and Amber a chance to see each other play live.

Tevin “was so excited that he could actually attend her game,” Rona said. “And she was excited because his game was on a Monday. They are excited when they get to go to each other's game. They are the biggest critics of each other too. They love to get that criticism from one another, and they feed on that.”

The criticism is mostly constructive, Thomas said. “They are each other's biggest fans. And when they get to go to each other's games, trust me, they are probably the loudest fan in the gym.”

Tevin works out frequently with Amber on conditioning and helps with other aspects of her game. But Amber paid the biggest homage of sibling support this season when she changed her number from 30 to 22.

“Out of respect for her brother, she changed her number to 22 when it became available this year,” Rona said. “She changed her number to 22 to match Tevin.”

As much as they like and care for each other, the two basketball stars still aren’t afraid to hand out harsh criticism. According to their father, you can frequently hear either one telling the other to "pick it up" or offering advice about a certain area of the game.

But how will the family handle two basketball games so far apart today? Who will go where?

Thomas will head back to his alma mater to watch Amber play with her North Cobb teammates. “I'm actually going to go to the game at Fort Valley State. I'm a Fort Valley State graduate, so it will be like going home for me. I played ball there also.”

Thomas is hoping that one of the other Wheeler parents will take over for him and record the Wildcats’ game. But what both parents really hope for is two wins.

“To see both of them make it to the Final Four would really be a great achievement for them,” said Thomas, who coached both Tevin and Amber since they were 5 years old. “Tevin was on the 2009 state championship team. And Amber, when she was 11, was on the 11-U AAU national championship team. Tevin's goal is to win a second state championship, and Amber's goal is to get a state championship to go with her AAU championship.”

You might say Thomas and Rona’s only goal is to get both kids in the same gym at the same time.

“I'm just really hoping that they do both win on Saturday so that we'll have them at one venue at the Gwinnett Center and we'll see both of them play back to back,” Rona said. “That's my hope.”