A special connection between twin brothers Tyler and Justin Oliver has helped to lead the St. Thomas soccer team to 13-1 record and No. 5 position in the United Soccer Coaches rankings.
However, Tyler and Justin didn’t start their collegiate careers at St. Thomas. The two brothers played two years at Eastern Illinois before Tyler decided he was ready for a change.
“The coach was all over me and it just stopped being fun,” Tyler said. “I just wanted to have fun and be happy again.”
Tyler decided to head back home to St. Paul to play for the Tommies. However, Justin wasn’t quite ready to move from Eastern Illinois.
“It was honestly the toughest decision I’ve ever made, choosing to stay there and watching Tyler come here,” Justin said. “I had scored six goals in our three exhibition games and it just didn’t feel like the right time for me to leave.”
For the first time in their lives, the twins played for different teams.
“The first game of the season, I tore an abductor muscle in my groin,” Justin said. “I started to not play as much and the season wasn’t going very well.”
Tyler and St. Thomas made it all the way to the Final Four after compiling a 20-2-3 record that season. Justin, who was still dealing with injury and was unable to play for Eastern Illinois, watched it all.
“It was really hard last year when I was at the Final Four … and I was in the stands,” he said. “(I was) wishing, wow, I would do anything to be out on that field playing with all those guys.”
At that point, Justin knew he wanted to transfer to St. Thomas and play his final season with his brother.
The brothers are making up for lost time this year. They have scored a combined 15 goals and seven assists through the first 14 games with St. Thomas. The team has only lost once, which came in early September against Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. They have won 10 games in a row since then and are 7-0 in MIAC play.
“There’s a very unique, unexplainable connection between the two where they just have an affinity of knowing where the other one’s going to be,” coach Jon Lowery said. “They really enjoy playing together.”
With four regular-season games remaining, the brothers are enjoying their final season of soccer.
“We’ve got five more games guaranteed, and everything after that you never know,” Justin said.
“(We’re) soaking it all in,” Tyler said. “(We’re) enjoying it while we still can, and hopefully we go make a run into the playoffs and we get a bunch more games.”
Brady Halbmaier can be reached at halb2084@stthomas.edu.