BEATRICE, Neb. - One of the best parts of high school sports in Nebraska is the family ties - that’s on full display on the Beatrice Lady Orange basketball team, by virtue of the Gleason sisters.

Annie is a senior, and multi-year contributor, for the Lady Orange, who’s now joined on the hardwood by younger sister Sophie, a junior, who decided to play basketball for the first time in high school. The reason? To play one more team sport with her older sister. 

“I think it’s really special, obviously I missed basketball, but that’s the main reason I came out - to play one more sport with Annie,” Sophie said.

“She came up to me one day and said ‘I think I’m going to go out for basketball,’ I thought she was joking,” Annie said. “She said ‘No I’m serious, I think I want one more season with you.”

Annie and Sophie are not strangers to sharing the floor together. The two have played numerous years of volleyball at a number of different levels, and combined for over 650 kills in three years at Beatrice.  Annie Gleason’s been a captain and known leader, but Sophie’s only seen it on the volleyball floor. Now, she sees it firsthand in basketball.

“I think she really stands out,” Sophie said. “She knows when to speak up and what to say and she always has an encouraging thing. She’s always looking to help someone and never will bring someone down.”

As anyone who’s played sports knows, it’s a time commitment and takes a rigorous routine. For the Gleason sisters, one of the best parts of the new venture has been being Abel to spend more time together.

“Annie and I are same positions,” Sophie said. “We always warm up together, warm up at at the same hoop, and it just gives us time to talk about our day and catch up on everything.”

“And basketball’’s such a long season so for the past three years, I’d go to practice, go home, do homework and go to bed,” Annie said. “But now that we practice together we can talk a lot more in the winter.”

From the Kissinger sisters at Minden, to Nicole and Jami Kubik at Cambridge, there’s no shortage of great sister duo’s to win state. Sophie and Annie would want nothing more, than to join that list.

“Of course it’’ll take everyone together,” Annie said. “I think even with our bond it’s great. We’re excited to have another chance at it this year, and we can push people and each other really well.”

The Gleason sisters will next take the floor this Thursday night, as Beatrice hosts Crete at 5:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on News Channel Nebraska.