The Twin Effect: Born To Be Teammates
While head coach Gibbs Keeton and staff didn’t intentionally set out to recruit twins, it gives the Orange and Blue a unique flavor compared to most squads throughout the country. Factor in that El Paso has its sister city, Ciudad Juárez, just across the border and the circumstances for this year’s roster become that much more interesting. UTEP soccer has embraced the multinational connection, playing an exhibition match vs. FC Juárez Feminil in the spring of 2024. While the Miners have an international flavor with players hailing from eight different nations, what perhaps stands out more than anything else is that nearly 25 percent of the roster in 2025 is comprised from twins.
Keeton’s squads are known for having special bonds and chemistry that extend beyond the pitch. Having two sets of twins on the team helps kickstart that process. Mix in three others being twins as well, and it creates a sense of camaraderie that can be sensed others
“Because we show the sisterly affection, people pick up on that,” Kaila Hudson said. “They want to be included in that, they want to have the same feeling. Everyone just feeds off that energy. In a sense, we (the entire team) just all become a big twin family.”
Villa Cuellar believes that she will be able to apply past experiences with her sister that will help lead to those deeper relationships across the board for everyone on the team.
“As I started getting more serious about my training and my soccer, something we (her and her twin Sofia) said a lot is that ‘iron sharpens iron,’” Villa Cuellar said. “That ties in with being family too. As twins we had a similar schedule, lived in the same house, were the same age, so no one was superior. It was just get up and go work. I think that’s a really big virtue that can tie into our team and really set the example of saying this is what family means.”
Just like many others who react with surprise when they hear about it, Grosso was caught off guard upon learning that there were seven twins on the roster.
“I knew of a couple of twins on the team,” Grosso said. “Of course, I didn’t know the multitude of how many there were.”
The same goes for Villa Cuellar, who understands the uniqueness of the situation.
“It’s very cool, we recently found out there were this many (of twins on the team). It’s a cool environment to jump into,” Villa Cuellar said. “I don’t think there’s any other DI school that has this many twins, and two sets of them, which is cool.”
One of those pairs mentioned by Villa Cuellar is the Cisneros sisters, who starred at Del Valle HS. With their collegiate careers on the cusp of starting, they are ready to live out a lifelong goal.
“The dream has always been to go DI, especially to be here at home,” Yesenia Cisneros said. “A lot of our family and friends (will) get to come here and support us, which we love. To be able to do that (play DI together) is an amazing opportunity. A lot of the coaches (during recruiting) were like, ‘so do you guys come together?’ We were like yes, if you take one of us you’ve got to take both of us. We wouldn’t want to be without each other in college.”
The duo helped lead Del Valle to a District 2-5A title in addition to multiple victories in the Class 5A playoffs during a successful senior season. Now the next step is to hit the pitch for their hometown Miners, not just with each other, but with other twins as well.
“I’m really excited to continue playing on the field with my sister and to share this experience with a bunch of other twins,” Damaris Cisneros said. “(It’s cool) knowing that they understand the connection that we have.”
At the other end of the spectrum are the Hudson twins, who have spent the past three seasons playing for different teams on opposite ends of the country. Kaila Hudson has made her mark with the Miners while Kialie Hudson carved out a career at Davidson, which is nearly 1,700 miles away in North Carolina. But the duo has been reunited for one last hurrah entering their senior campaign.
“I had a great time, so did she (competing with different programs),” Kaila Hudson said. “When she decided to transfer, we were like, why not do one year together since we hadn’t played together since we were 18 years old. I didn’t expect this (to happen), but I’m excited. My mom has always wanted us to go to school together. So, when she decided to transfer, my mom was like ‘Kialie, it’s your chance to go with Kaila.’”
It’ll be the first time the pair has competed alongside each other since the club level.
“I came in the spring for a visit just to see it (El Paso and UTEP), and I really did enjoy it,” Kialie Hudson said. “I met some of my teammates, and I thought that ok, this could be fun, this could be great. I’ve been here for a bit now, and I’m really enjoying it.”
One thing they will do for the team is setting an example of how to bring a competitive juice to the pitch for every drill in practice and every minute of a match.
“Kaila and I are both very competitive people,” Kialie Hudson said. “I’m excited to see her back on the field (with me) and to have that environment that we had in club where were bickering with each other like ‘you’re doing terrible, pick it up.’ It’ll be fun, but she’s a captain so I have to respect that obviously. Being siblings, it’s accountability. I know what her best looks like and vice versa. We know each other’s standards, and I think that can be applied to the team as a whole. Having multiple twins on the team, you can have that environment spread a lot quicker because we all want the same thing. We all want everyone to play their best all the time, every time.”
Barry, Grosso and Villa Cuellar don’t have the luxury of being alongside their twin at UTEP like the Cisneros and Hudson sisters do, but Barry has it particularly difficult with an 18-hour time difference from El Paso to her hometown in New Zealand. She doesn’t let that hinder her enthusiasm on any level.
“I’m excited to play (this season),” Barry said. “I love knowing my family is back home watching. I always let my twin (Tessa) know what time the game is. She always will give me an honest opinion on the game. Even though she doesn’t really play anymore, I still trust her advice to be honest. It’s nice to hear from her.”
She also gives perspective to anyone on the squad, not just the other twins, who is missing family or friends.
“If you guys (the other twins) were to say ‘you miss your twin,’ no, I’m not going to hear it because she’s so far away,” Barry said. “Tessa is back home in New Zealand. It’s hard, she’s the one person I miss the most. There’s a whole ocean between us. She’s definitely my rock if anything is going wrong. I’m going to call her. She’ll give me her perspective.”
Someone who will be leaning on Barry for help with being away from her twin (Sydney), albeit not as the same distance given that she hails from Austin, is Grosso.
“Some people separate for college, some people don’t,” Grosso said. “I was doing everything with my twin every single day until we made it to college. I’m a freshman, so this is the first time that we’ve been separated. It’s really hard to be apart because we’ve always experienced things together, but I do think it’s going to be good to be apart so we can grow separately.”
That (separation) is something that Villa Cuellar went through last year.
“I learn from my twin, and she learns from me. In a way, we kind of complete each other,” Villa Cuellar said. “When we separated for college (in 2024), I kind of found myself relying upon some of those characteristics that she showed when we were together.”
Grosso has a close connection with her twin even if not everyone who meets them knows they are more than just sisters.
“People don’t even understand that we’re twins a lot of times,” Grosso said. “We look completely different, and her personality is completely different. She’s really quiet, and I’m really loud. We did grow up playing soccer together, and we played it all the way through my senior year, but she decided to go to college just for academics and of course I decided to keep playing.”
Barry can relate to that as well.
“She looks nothing like me and nothing like anyone in my family,” Barry said. “You just grow up together, you’re so close. We grew apart a little bit when we were younger because I’m so sporty and she’s so artsy, but then our differences pulled us together more. We realized that our differences were how we could connect with each other. She balances me out.”
That’s not the case for Damaris and Yesenia Cisneros, who are often mistaken for each other.
“It’s pretty often that we get mixed up, especially since a lot of the times we wear the same thing,” Yesenia Cisneros said. “It’s a silly thing that happens, and we don’t mind it.”
That confusion even trickled onto the field in a game this past year.
“We both got yellow cards (a couple minutes apart),” Damaris Cisneros said. “A lot of people in the stands were yelling that she (Yesenia) already had two yellows, and then our family and our fans were like ‘no, there’s two of them! It was a pretty funny interaction. Surprisingly, the ref knew right away that we were two different people.”
Their play at the prep level didn’t just have fans seeing double, but the opposition as well. The duo combined for 60 goals and 41 assists last year, often assisting on each other’s tally.
“We were very successful together, and we would bounce off each other on the field,” Damaris Cisneros said. “If she would mess up, I would pick her up. She picked me up. I feel like we really combined well with each other. Other schools were like ‘we don’t have to worry about just one of them, there’s two (of them).’”
That was a sentiment echoed by her twin sister.
“It was really fun (playing at Del Valle), especially doing it with my best friend,” Yesenia Cisneros said. “I feel like our connection on the field is something not a lot of people have. I just know where she’s at, I know she’s going to be there.”
While it hasn’t been since the club level, the Hudson sisters also wreaked havoc when playing together with the Houston Dash.
“Sometimes we played on the same side of the field so if Kaila were to go up and I’d go back (it would confuse people),” Kialie Hudson said. “I think at one point everyone called us twin and didn’t even try names anymore. Now, we look a lot different, so it’ll be fine.”
Kaila Hudson also has fond memories of those times.
“It was funny because everybody was like, ‘oh there’s Kaila and she’s passing it to Kialie,’” Kaila Hudson said. “We were just controlling different parts of the field. If we played on the same side, it was like the twin attack.”
With the season approaching, the twins and the rest of their teammates are going through a lot of bonding, both on and off the field. The goal is to build a cohesive group that thrives and supports each other in all that they do, with the hope that it leads to some “twinning ways” in 2025.
