If you went to watch the Lady Wildcats play soccer last night don’t worry, you weren’t seeing double. Those were identical twins Erin and Gina Gossett on the field.
Erin, who plays midfielder with an occasional outing as forward, says “it’s fun to play with my sister. We go places together and have lots of the same friends.” But she admits it can be tricky for her teammates. “On the field, they use our jersey numbers to tell us apart or the color of our cleats (Erin’s are blue and Gina’s are red and black). We have the freaky twin thing going – we even had the same dream on the same night one time.” They’ll both head off to OU in the fall – “it’s comforting to have each other” – but they plan to have different roommates – “we want to branch out a little.”
Erin is also close to older sister, Kelsey, currently a senior at OU. “She’s a role model to me. I look up to her a lot.” She also has high praise for LHHS girls’ head coach Misty Benson. “She always pushes us to do our best, and she lets us know when we did a good job. She is dedicated to the success of the team and the players. She’s a good girls’ coach – she’s tough but she’s a good communicator.”
Before games, Erin listens to the Blackeyed Peas and she’s careful to put on her right shin guard and cleats before her left. “When I was little, I read that Mia Hamm did that, so I started doing it.” She tries to eat healthy, lunching on ramen noodles and bananas on game day, and she figures her honors anatomy class comes in handy. “Ms. Nichols makes learning fun,” she says of her anatomy teacher. “She finds ways to make the lessons interactive, and she has lots of energy and enthusiasm.”
Erin, shown in the photo with LH grad and country music artist Granger Smith, predicts the team will make it to playoffs again this year. “We play well together, I think we’ll go far. We had fun traveling to Georgetown last year, it was a great experience. Our moms made us goodie bags, and at the hotel we wrote good luck wishes on whiteboards on each others’ doors.” After watching them play, my advice to the moms is: Get your goodie bags ready.
