Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Alex Ball/DP Staff Photographer Sophomore twins Nate (left) and Josh (right) Powers have been on the same football team since they were in fourth grade. For Al Bagnoli's squad, Josh has two interceptions (for 18 return yards) and ten tackles. Nate has mostly been watching his brother - from whom he's nearly inseparable - from the sidelines.

Having spent the past 20 years in lockstep, defensive backs Josh and Nate Powers have one cardinal rule: Never pursue the same woman.

Perhaps that's because, as twins, they've already demonstrated the mischief they can cause when girls can't tell them apart.

And even then, they found a crafty way around their number-one directive. In high school, the brothers dated identical twins.

"My mom loved it," Josh said.

The Powers are one of a handful of twin pairs to don the red and blue on a varsity team.

They've been on the same football team since fourth grade - and have also dabbled in basketball and track together.

"For football, it was just something we had a passion for," Josh said. "We thought we were going to run track for a while, but we made a joint decision that we were going to do football."

They claim they don't base decisions off each other - "It just happens that we like the same exact stuff," Nate said - but their chosen paths are eerily similar.

Last spring, Nate - who (like his brother, of course) is in Wharton with an undecided concentration - was unsure of which classes to take. Little did he know that Josh had already mapped out both their course plans. They wound up with identical schedules.

"It just worked out that way," Josh said. "Just about everything is the same about us."

On the field, there's at least one distinction: Josh has 10 tackles and two interceptions this year, while Nate has yet to make an appearance on the stat sheet.

To their teammates and coaches, though, they're one and the same.

"If we didn't have numbers the coaches wouldn't know who we were," Josh said. "We could switch on them, most of our teammates, all the guys in our fraternity."

Continued...

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