Woodside High Twins Share Sibling Rivalry and Brotherly Love

In the grand stereotypes of the high school socialization, marching bandleaders and wrestling champions aren’t exactly neighbors in the schoolyard hierarchy. However, twins Will and Joe Basler will not let typecasting prevent them from succeeding in their passions.

“Marching band is harder than most sports,” Will said. “When comparing marching band to football, I’d say the marching band kids are slightly tougher.”

The recently graduated Woodside High School students will be off to separate colleges this fall, Joe in pursuit of an undergraduate degree in sociology and Will plans to study biology. Joe will head to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, while his brothers heads south to Thousand Oaks, California, to California Lutheran University.

The brothers were each vital to the wrestling team and marching band while at Woodside.

“In all the sports I’ve done, wrestling is truly the toughest,” Joe said. “Ten percent of the sport is physical and 90 percent of the sport is mental.”

The twins were both on the Woodside team and agree that the sport has shaped them both physically and emotionally.

“In the first month I dropped 30 pounds,” Will said. “So you can get an idea of how much we were working out.”

After Will’s freshman season, a former coach told his mother that he would never be able to succeed in the sport. But his determination and dedication to his craft took him all the way to the state championships.

“It taught me that if you work hard and work at something over a long period of time, if you keep working at it you will definitely prevail,” Will said.

The twins often competed with another for their weight class, and each won the Coach's Award as badminton teammates.

“Being a sibling and being on the same team can be kind of tough,” Joe said.

The twins were sometimes unable to leave the anger on the court.

“Sometimes freshman and sophomore year after a badminton game, we’d be pushing each other into the bushes, we’d be trying to kill each other…you know, the good ‘ol days,” Will laughed. “But then finally junior year Joe and I realized it’s not worth the constant fighting and we should be a better team.”

Joe admits without shame that Will often took the win on the mat. However, Joe and Will agree that while Will is a stronger wrestler, Joe is the better badminton player.

The Basler twins were also leaders in the school’s marching band.

“Music has been the biggest part of my high school career,” Joe said.

The brothers have been playing music since youngsters in the fifth grade, Joe on flute and saxophone and Will on the trumpet.

“Marching band is so fun,” Will said. “When you join marching band you have at least 50 new friends in the week and a half of band camp.”

The music community at Woodside has largely shaped the twins’ time at Woodside, the twins describe the band as one big family.

“Trumpet’s my first love,” Joe said. “It may not be a major or a minor but it’s my passion.”

Both will be actively seeking to continue their education in music through community or school bands.

“One of the good things about music is that you can always do it,” Will said.

Though each will be hours away when at college, the twins said they plan to visit their friends at Woodside to pass on any words of wisdom.

The community of Woodside has given the brothers a foundation for success and they don’t intend to forget it.

“I want to be one more great person that comes from one more great school,” Joe said.

The twins said that people often ask them how they will feel when they finally part ways from the brother that has been at their side since the womb.

“Yes, we’re twins but we’re separate people,” Joe said. “Just because we look alike doesn’t mean we are alike.”

Though the brother’s admiration for one another is blatantly obvious, Will said he was actually happy that they plan to attend separate colleges.

“It will be the first time we’ll get to live on our own,” Joe said.

They said their mother began tearing up more than a year ago, as she will feel a double dose of empty nest syndrome in the oncoming few weeks.

“I’ll have so much trouble getting her out of my dorm room,” Joe laughed.

For each other, the brothers only had kind words.

“He’s always optimistic and always happy,” Will said of his brother.

Will said that Joe’s fervor for life will absolutely lead him to be great.

“When he’s passionate about one thing he can put all of his energy into it,” Will said. “And that will be his greatest asset going into the future.”

Joe said Will is more than a brother but a teammate and a genuinely respectable person who has, and always will be, his support.

“He’s been a muse: he’s been a source of great anger, great contempt,” Joe joked. “But really he’s the greatest brother you could ask for. He’s more so shaped me than anyone else.”