Jan. 27, 2004: The Salt Lake Tribune, Double Trouble: Dons Pin Wrestling Fortunes on Twins
by Peter Richins

Spanish Fork's wrestling team is the defending Class 4-A state champion, at the top of its classification this year and among the best teams in the state.

Because of all the extra practice some of the Dons get at home, the teams' success was perhaps inevitable. Counted among the teams' best wrestlers are two sets of twins: Garrett and Jared Elliott, and Dave and Shane Beagley.

"We call them the twins squared," coach Lane Shepherd said.

Shepherd does not hesitate to praise the look-alike pairs, and for good reason. Dave Beagley, for instance, is ranked No. 1 in 4-A in the 112-pound weight division.

"He's one of the best wrestlers to ever come through this state," Shepherd said.

The Beagleys began wrestling when they were 5 years old, largely because that is what the family had done for a long time. Their older brother, Garritt, was the first to wrestle, and it just caught on.

Fraternal twins, the Beagleys are the youngest in a family of six children. Having two older brothers to tussle with, Shane said, probably helped Dave improve.

"Dave was always wrestling bigger kids," Shane, a 145-pounder, said. "Since he's the little brother, everybody beat up on him."

The twins also went at it.

"We were always wrestling," Shane said. "There are holes in the wall."

Their parents, Jaylynn and Scott Beagley, only tolerated the interior destruction for a while. They now go at it in the back yard.

"We go out on the trampoline to [wrestle]," Dave said. Their matches continue, he added, until "one of us puts the other's head through the springs."

And while their disagreements might sometimes be serious, they call their relationship a good one.

"It's hard to get bored," Shane said.

"There's always someone to hang out with," Dave said.

Dave said the pair's impromptu matches at home helped his technique: "You learn to scramble around a lot better. You learn to get out of situations, and get out of holds and scramble out of things."

Dave has had more luck in his high school career than Shane, and has seen more success, only because of Shane's knee injuries. Shane first was injured at last year's Richardson Memorial tournament, and his difficulties with the knee have kept him out all of this year. He tried wrestling again at this year's Richardson, but did not last.

"I just couldn't do anything I used to be able to do," Shane said. "It's just not as fun. Everyone else is out there winning tournaments and state championships and stuff, and I'm just on the side taking stats."

But his brother is always there.

"We've always been friends," he said.

Coach Shepherd is just as pleased to have the Elliott twins on the team. The pair, he said, are the kind of boys he wants his own children to hang out with.

Like the Beagleys, Garrett and Jared Elliott started wrestling when they were 5-years-old. When their soccer season was done, their father, Scott, suggested a new sport.

"At first we thought it was like karate," Garrett said.

After that, the identical twins were hooked.

"I thought it was really fun," Garrett said. "I remember learning my first move, the head throw, and thinking it was real cool."

Constantly having a partner at home to spar against, Jared said, helped them get better quickly.

"We were always competing against each other anyway," Jared said. "We were always at the same skill level, so we always were pushing each other."

The two sometimes set up their own matches; whoever got the most takedowns, out of five, was the winner. And their dad encouraged their at-home tussles, one time bringing home a section of an old wrestling mat.

"We were just trying to see who was better, and we were just always trying to push each other harder and harder," Garrett said.

"I didn't want him to out-do me or anything," Jared said. "It always made me want to compete harder."

All the extra time spent wrestling at home, Garrett said, is paying off.

"You can learn the moves without mat time, but when you have a lot of mat time you don't have to think about it. It just comes to you," Garrett said.

One of the Elliotts has also struggled with knee injuries. While Garrett has been able to rehabilitate his knee, Jared was forced to miss most of last year.

But while Garrett is the top-ranked wrestler in 4-A at 215 pounds, Jared is not jealous of his twin's success.

"I love it when he does well," Jared, a 171-pounder, said. "I'm frustrated because I'm not doing as well, but I'm not mad at him because of it."

Quite the contrary. Garrett said their relationship is good.

"We get along really well,"Garrett said. "We hang out all the time, and we have the same friends."

The closeness between both sets of twins gives Spanish Fork a little something extra.

Enough, perhaps, to give the school an extra state title.