30 Sep 2024 Kids of the Month: Ashyr and Abbott Crow
By Mark Oliver
From the baseball diamond to the basketball court, the football gridiron and everything in between, fraternal twins Ashyr and Abbott Crow are well-known in their Greenbrier community.
Balancing busy schedules with multiple extracurricular activities, the Crows can be found at a game, lesson or practice nearly every day of the week. More than just sibling teammates, they’re best friends.
“In other houses, kids have to invite their friends over to have fun,” Ashyr said. “I don’t. My best friend lives with me. We have a strong connection and have a lot of fun together.”
“Ashyr makes me laugh hysterically,” Abbott said. “We like to hunt, fish, watch YouTube, play Xbox, take naps and just be silly together.”
The Crows’ passion for sports began in their own front yard.
“We started playing baseball with our parents when we were 4 years old,” Abbott said. “They signed us up to play tee ball and that’s where it all started.”
Through travel baseball, they have racked up numerous accomplishments, including winning the 10U World Series, participating in the Cal Ripken Experience and taking home an Arkansas state championship.
“Most kids haven’t gotten to play all across the country like we have,” Ashyr said. “I’m thankful for our parents’ help in getting these opportunities. It’s been so much fun to experience all these things together.”
As eighth-graders, Ashyr and Abbott are hard at work with Greenbrier Junior High football this fall. Both play running back and outside linebacker, while Abbott also contributes at tight end and Ashyr helps as wide receiver.
“The transition from seventh-grade football to junior high football has been a challenge,” Abbott said. “Last year, it was much easier to tackle the competition because we were bigger than everyone else. This year, everyone is bigger than us, but we’re getting better every day.”
“This is just our second year playing football,” Ashyr said. “Personally, I think I like it better than the other sports we play It’s a lot of fun.”
No matter where Abbott goes, Ashyr is sure to follow. The twins recount missing last year’s track and field conference meets after coincidentally sustaining the same injuries in practice.
“In our first track practice of the season, I pulled my hip flexor doing hurdles,” Abbott said. “After I healed, I came back to practice later in the year and immediately pulled my other hip flexor.”
“I felt my hip tighten when I was doing the triple jump in practice one day,” Ashyr added. “I didn’t think anything of it and went to run the 100-meter race and pulled my hip flexor, too.”
Just like that, the Crow boys ended up side-by-side in physical therapy.
“Each week, we both would get checked out of school to go to physical therapy,” Ashyr said. “It was fun, but because we are very competitive with one another, we usually ended up fighting over who got to ride the better exercise bike at therapy. Abbott likes to brag that he’s one minute older than me, so he usually got the good bike.”
Occasionally, they’ve been mistaken for one another.
“Our coaches get us mixed up all the time,” Ashyr said. “We’ve even managed to stump our mom a time or two. One time, when we were little, our church was giving out candy to all the kids. Abbott got in line twice pretending to be me and left me without any candy.”
On and off the field, the Crow boys are competitive in everything they do. “When it’s family board game night, someone is going to bed mad,” Abbott said. “We’ll trash talk and rub it in each other’s faces, but it’s all in good fun.”
On social media, the brothers have become quite popular, with more than 6,000 Instagram followers and more than 33,000 fans on TikTok.
“Originally, we started posting baseball videos online so coaches and scouts would notice us,” Abbott said. “One day, we posted a video of us in our living room attempting a jumping trick, and it went viral. The rest was history.”
“I never thought we would blow up like we did,” Ashyr said. “Today, when we’re out playing games together, people recognize us. Kids will come up to us and ask to meet us. It’s really cool.”
Unsurprisingly, both have the same career ambitions after high school.
“There are more sports in our future,” Ashyr said. “While we haven’t decided yet, whether it’s playing ball professionally, coaching or even just teaching high school, we know we’ll do it together.”
“That goes for college, too,” Abbott added. “No matter where we decide to go after graduation, we plan to stick together.”
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