EGELSTON TOWNSHIP – Roy and Melissa Anderson had a lot to celebrate last Friday when they hosted an open house for their twin sons, a few days before they graduated from Oakridge High School.

Their boys’ achievements have been amazing, to say the least.

Spencer Anderson finished as the valedictorian of his class with a spectacular 4.18 grade point average. His brother Gavin was right behind him, with a 4.13.

How often do twins finish in the top two spots in their graduating class, particularly at a larger high school like Oakridge? How many parents get to brag to their friends about something like that?

But it was more than the academic success that made the Andersons so proud.

It was the way that Spencer and Gavin stuck with their studies, and stayed at the top of their class rankings, through a senior year filled with unexpected challenge and heartbreak.

The first challenge came in September, when Spencer, the starting goalie for the Oakridge soccer team, collided head-on with an opposing player during a game at Montague. He left the game and his mother took him to the hospital, where tests showed that he suffered a skull fracture and had bleeding on the brain, a condition that obviously could have been life-threatening.

Spencer recovered amazingly well after a few very worrisome days in the hospital, but still missed weeks of school, as well as the rest of the soccer season. He also missed most of the football season, which was an extra disappointment, since he went out for the sport for the first time last fall to be the Eagles’ placekicker.

The family was still recovering from the brain injury scare when the boys’ maternal grandmother, Marcia Stever, passed away from lung cancer in late October at the age of 72. Spencer and Gavin were her only grandchildren, they were very close to her, and their “Nanna” had made it very clear that she wanted to see them graduate.

Sadly that didn’t happen.

About a month later Melissa Anderson’s aunt, Pam Sipe, suddenly passed away following a bout with COVID, also at the age of 72. She had been in good health for her age, according to the Andersons, but the unpredictable virus took her in a way that left their heads spinning.

In November, Spencer and his dad both tested positive for COVID, and although neither became very ill, the entire family was quarantined, and Spencer and Gavin had to miss two weeks of school.

Earlier in the fall, both boys contracted “Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease,” a contagious viral disorder that causes itchy bumps and sores. Of course the condition passed and both boys were fine, but they missed some school because of that, too.

The challenges of their senior year extended all the way to the day of their open house, as the family was preparing their yard and garage for their guests.

That morning the boys’ grandfather, Roy Anderson Sr., had to be rushed to the hospital with scary COVID symptoms, and ended up missing the party and commencement ceremony. He’s back home now, but his condition was concerning.

So the Anderson’s story is a mixture of tragedy and triumph. It’s a testament to a pair of hard-working twins who love to compete with and against each other, have normal sibling arguments but clearly share a special bond, and were able to remain focused and finish at their top of their class, despite a senior year filled with trauma.

“It was just about knowing that everything we’ve been doing mattered,” Gavin said. “It was hard, but we had to get it done.”

When asked to express his feelings about his sons and everything they’ve accomplished, Roy Anderson, who had just rushed his father to the hospital that morning, had to take a long moment to choke back his emotions.

“It’s hard,” their dad said, wiping away a tear or two. “They just don’t realize how proud we are of them, and how well they’ve done, after what they’ve been through.”

‘She was so important in our lives’

Spencer’s soccer accident occurred when a Montague player had a breakaway and was approaching the goal with the ball, and Spencer came out to try to head him off. They both dove for the ball, their heads collided, and Spencer didn’t get up right away.

The doctors believe Spencer was knocked out for a few moments on the field. He was finally able to get up and walk to the bench, but it was clear that he was not okay, and his mother drove him to Mercy Hospital.

It was there that they learned that the jolt he took caused his skull to fracture, which caused his brain to bleed in several places. Spencer suffered from severe head pain, particularly a few days after the collision.

Spencer spent five full days in the hospital, and the situation was pretty frightening for a while. One of his brain bleeds stopped, but the other increased for a time, causing a buildup of blood within the skull. That buildup caused his brain to shift to the left, and if the bleeding hadn’t stopped on its own, surgery would have been necessary.

“The bleeding was getting worse day-to-day,” Roy Anderson said. “They were doing CT scans every day. When the brain starts moving, things can get real dangerous real quick.”

 

Spencer suffered from severe head pain, particularly a few days after the collision.

“It was really bothering me the first night, the second day was not horrible, but I think the third day it got really bad,” Spencer said last fall. “I had really sharp pains in my skull and temple area. But they gave me meds and stuff, eventually I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was all right.”

Gavin was also on the soccer team and happened to be on the bench when the collision occurred. He wasn’t allowed to go to the hospital, due to COVID restrictions, and had to sit at home and wait for news about his brother.

“It felt horrible to know he was going through all of that,” Gavin said. “I wasn’t too worried, because I knew he was tough, but it was still worrisome to hear exactly what was happening. Spencer did help lighten the mood by sending me some funny pictures from the hospital, but it was still hard to handle.”

Spencer’s activities were very limited when he went home, and he ended up missing about a month of school.

His major goal was to return to the soccer and football teams before the season ended, and that happened, but in a very limited way.

He got to be the starting goalie in the Eagles’ last home soccer game of the season, but it was purely symbolic. By pre-arrangement, the opposing team took the ball at the start of the game, sent a light shot toward the goal, and Spencer kicked it out of bounds and immediately left the game.

His return to football was completely unplanned and turned out to have an element of humor to it.

The Eagles were far ahead in a playoff game at Tri-County and scored a late touchdown. One of the assistant coaches shouted out that Spencer, who had dressed for the game, should get the chance to kick the extra point. Head coach Cary Harger agreed, and Spencer excitedly took the field.

Unfortunately Spencer was way out of practice and hadn’t warmed up very much, and the extra point fell a bit short of the mark.

“I’m used to kicking off a half-inch block, and the one I had was an inch and a half, plus I hadn’t done it in a while,” Spencer said. “It went pretty high up in the air – but it landed about five feet in front of me!”

As scary and disappointing as the soccer injury was, the hardest part of the school year for the Andersons came when their grandmother passed away.

Not long before, she had been walking her dog when a stray dog knocked her down. She experienced worrisome symptoms after that, so Melissa Anderson took her in for tests, and they were stunned to learn that she had advanced lung cancer.

In October she also had a severe issue with her bowels and had to undergo surgery. She agreed to have the procedure because she wanted to live long enough to make it to graduation in the spring.

The surgery occurred on Oct. 23, the same day that Gavin played for Oakridge in a district championship soccer game while Spencer cheered from the sideline. The procedure was successful, but their grandma still passed away just four days later.

“She had told my best friend the only thing she wanted out of life now was to see my boys graduate,” Melissa Anderson said. “My mom was a fighter, but she had enough and couldn’t do it anymore. At least the boys had the chance to go see her and say goodbye. My brother flew in from Virginia, he got there around 12:30, and about two hours later she passed.”

Spencer and Gavin wiped away tears while they listened to their mom recount the story about losing their grandma.

“She was so important in our lives,” Spencer said. “She always said she didn’t need any guys in her life besides us. To see her like that was really difficult.

“She always talked about how our education would set us up for the future. Nanna always pushed that on us – it all starts with school – so we had to stay focused because that’s what she wanted from us.”

‘His success is basically my success’

The spring went a lot smoother for Spencer and Gavin, at least in terms of their sports.

They are both dedicated track and field athletes who compete year-round, and both had some success with the Oakridge squad this season.

Gavin, a pole-vaulter, finished second in the event at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Meet, and third at the West Michigan All-Star meet.

His best finish came in an elite meet in Kent City, where he finished first against very tough competition. But the event ran late, darkness was setting in, and officials ended the competition before everyone had completed their jumps.

That didn’t feel right to Gavin, and he declined to accept the championship medal.

“I didn’t want it,” he said. “Dave Conrad from Whitehall should have won it. They didn’t let everyone finish.”

Spencer competed in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles and the 400-meter relay. He placed second in the conference meet in the 110-hurdles.

Neither of them had a very good day at regionals, and they failed to qualify for the state finals. Gavin said he had a particularly tough time in the pole vault.

“On the first jump I bailed out on the way up, and on the second one I hit the bar going up,” he said. “I had lots of speed, but I went straight into the bar and knocked it over.”

Part of their problem on regional day was the bad news they had just received. While they were both accepted by a lot of elite colleges, Spencer and Gavin had their hearts set on gaining appointments to the U.S. Air Force Academy or the U.S. Naval Academy, and both had recommendations from members of Congress.

They learned a while back that they didn’t get into the Air Force Academy, then they got the same reply from the Naval Academy. That threw a wrench into their plans, and now they are going to Muskegon Community College in the fall while they apply to the service academies again.

“The Air Force Academy was our top choice, the Naval Academy was number two, and we were waiting to hear back from them,” Spencer said. “On the day of the regional meet Gavin got an email saying sorry the class was full, then I looked at mine and it said the same thing. That really sucked. It was something we were banking on.”

Of course the boys’ biggest victory came at the end of the school year, when they finished at the top of their graduating class.

They never got anything less than an A in their classes through four years of high school, with one exception.

“I had one A-minus, in Spanish 2,” Gavin said. “I broke my leg and missed a couple weeks of school.”

The brothers say they didn’t really care who finished first or second in their battle for the top spot in their class. As Spencer put it, “It was just about getting good grades.”

The more they talk about it, however, the more obvious it becomes that there was a degree of competition there.

“We have competitive natures, and we battle a lot in everything to try to beat one another,” Gavin said. “He took one more AP (advanced placement) class than I did, but I still had the better ACT score.”

“Not by much!” Spencer quickly retorted.

It’s also obvious that their success has been a team effort. Sometimes they helped each other by working together – and sometimes by competing against and pushing each other – but they’re both very proud of each other.

“His success is great – it’s nice seeing him come so far,” Spencer said about Gavin. “We wouldn’t have been so successful if it had been just one of us.”

“His success is basically my success,” Gavin agreed. “Our schedules in school were exactly the same. We had the same classes and worked together on everything – even though we argued all the time.”