Twin attack
Freshmen twins give opponents double vision on basketball court
Jacob McCormick
Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: Student Life
Boyceville High School's Brooke Hakanson took a pass on the low block during the WIAA Division III women's basketball tournament and felt the heat of the defense collapsing down on her.
"I whipped a pass around the back of the defender towards the hoop," she said. "Fortunately, Brittanni (Hakanson) was there to grab it and take the lay up. I honestly didn't see her there, and our coach told me I was extremely lucky she was around to save me."
This is an example of the kind of chemistry the Hakanson sisters have felt since they started playing basketball on the local traveling team.
Freshmen Brittanni and Brooke Hakanson are identical twins and teammates on the UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team.
However, the twins have not always been playing at the level it takes to make it on the Eau Claire women's basketball roster.
"We started playing in fifth grade on the Northwest League traveling team," Brittanni Hakanson said. "We were really bad; our mom used to get so embarrassed when she went to the games."
The girls were not born with natural talent, but they worked extremely hard, said Tammy Hakanson, Brittanni and Brooke's mother.
Rob Hakanson, the twins' father, coached the twins from the first steps they took onto the court to their state championship in the Northwest League in eighth grade.
"We worked on a lot of skills and fundamentals together," he said. "I pushed them a little harder, and it paid off."
The twins started to progress dramatically throughout their middle school years.
"In seventh grade, the high school had open gym during the summer," Brittanni Hakanson said. "We would go almost every time, and that's when things started really coming together for us."
The twins' hard work continued to bring them closer to the college level when Boyceville made the state tournament in their junior and senior years in high school.
Unfortunately, they finished runner-up each year.
After high school, the girls almost didn't get the chance to be on the court together again.
"I whipped a pass around the back of the defender towards the hoop," she said. "Fortunately, Brittanni (Hakanson) was there to grab it and take the lay up. I honestly didn't see her there, and our coach told me I was extremely lucky she was around to save me."
This is an example of the kind of chemistry the Hakanson sisters have felt since they started playing basketball on the local traveling team.
Freshmen Brittanni and Brooke Hakanson are identical twins and teammates on the UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team.
However, the twins have not always been playing at the level it takes to make it on the Eau Claire women's basketball roster.
"We started playing in fifth grade on the Northwest League traveling team," Brittanni Hakanson said. "We were really bad; our mom used to get so embarrassed when she went to the games."
The girls were not born with natural talent, but they worked extremely hard, said Tammy Hakanson, Brittanni and Brooke's mother.
Rob Hakanson, the twins' father, coached the twins from the first steps they took onto the court to their state championship in the Northwest League in eighth grade.
"We worked on a lot of skills and fundamentals together," he said. "I pushed them a little harder, and it paid off."
The twins started to progress dramatically throughout their middle school years.
"In seventh grade, the high school had open gym during the summer," Brittanni Hakanson said. "We would go almost every time, and that's when things started really coming together for us."
The twins' hard work continued to bring them closer to the college level when Boyceville made the state tournament in their junior and senior years in high school.
Unfortunately, they finished runner-up each year.
After high school, the girls almost didn't get the chance to be on the court together again.