Senior twins excel in multiple fields

Seniors Brendan and Nate Ney wove up and down the badminton court, seeming to predict each other’s exact movements, easily scoring on their opponents and winning their match against Gunn High School’s varsity No. 2 doubles team 21-15.

At first glance, the connection these fraternal twins share on the court is clear. But these two are much more than just a talented badminton pair.

The Neys are two of the most recognizable faces on campus. The twins are well known for their academic performance and excellence in multiple school clubs and activities, such as Science Olympiad, badminton, Homecoming, History Bowl and Science Bowl.

Although the brothers’ many extracurriculars may make them seem like typical Saratoga students, taking one glance at their schedules is a clear sign of their above-average academic excellence.

For example, the pair both took AP Calculus BC as sophomores and pursued their STEM interests by doubling on AP Chemistry and AP Physics as juniors.

“I think our similarities are due in large part to us growing up together,” Brendan said. “We always enjoyed competing against one another, so we naturally developed similar interests.”

Brendan, who is more interested in STEM fields than Nate, leads the Science Bowl team as one of its three captains. He is the team’s specialist for environmental and Earth-related sciences.

Brendan credits his inclination toward STEM to his “obsessive curiosity.”

“This can be a bad habit when I waste time on Wikipedia reading about obscure topics,” Brendan said. “But in academic fields, [the habit] takes the form of long-term commitments to acquire knowledge in the search of underlying truths.”

While also gifted in mathematics and sciences, Nate has taken an interest in the school’s History Bowl team since his sophomore year.

Nate was involved in the “Star Wars” Senior Quad Day last fall, playing Darth Vader.

Despite his convincing portrayal of a villain in the Quad Day skit, Nate is well known for his lively demeanor.

“I enjoy spending as much time away from academics as possible,” Nate said. “By spending time doing what I like, I enjoy my life in school while also striving to do well academically.”

Senior Alex Li, who has known the Neys since the three of them attended Argonaut Elementary School, observes subtle differences between the twins.

Li described a time that he and the Ney brothers all showed up in their AP Environmental Science class wearing the same Redwood Math Coach sweatshirt.

According to Li, Nate simply took his off while Brendan discussed probability of all of them wearing the sweatshirt on a given day and concluded that whoever got dressed first that morning had the right to keep wearing the sweatshirt.

Li said that he has enjoyed sharing several classes and extracurriculars with the Neys over the past few years and that one definite trait that both share is their friendliness.

In addition to their academic excellence and sociable personalities, the twins play varsity doubles badminton for the school and manage to rank highly within the team, despite not having any formal training in the sport.

“I believe twin telepathy is totally real,” Brendan joked. “Let me ask Nate right now what he thinks. He disagrees.”

Although the two share a close bond, their drive to succeed forces them to try to outdo each other when they compete.

“During math contests, you’re trying to do your best and place as high as you can,” Nate said, “so you try to do better than other people, and one of those other people is my brother.”

Despite this occasional sibling rivalry, they are able to overcome their differences to avoid straining their close relationship.

“In general, we tend to take part in and succeed at the same activities, and it’s nice sharing the feeling of accomplishment and advancing to higher levels of competition together,” Nate said.

Whether it be in their advanced math and science courses, behind the buzzer at a trivia competition or even on the badminton court, the Ney twins seem to fit together like puzzle pieces.

Although there are numerous aspects that make them different from each other, they both plan to major in computer science when they head off to college next year, likely at different universities.

They think college will be immensely different from what they have grown accustomed to: growing up together.

“College life is a change for everyone,” Brendan said, “but it’ll for sure be different not being able to immediately talk to [Nate].”