From the start, Josh, Jake and Parker Wikel were destined to play football together. When they were young, their mother, Karrin, thought maybe one of her sons would like art or music.

But the three boys’ father, Drew, who played middle linebacker at Central Washington University in 1988 and ‘89, just said, “You take potatoes, you plant potatoes, you get potatoes.”

They grew up playing sports while their father coached. Josh and Parker played pee-wee football together once, but Josh says Jake was “too small” back then and never played on the same team as his brothers.

Now, though, they are all contributing members of the Lake Washington Kangaroos varsity football team this year, and the boys recently headed to the playoffs against Sedro-Wooley. The Kangs lost 48-13 but are 4-5 after posting a 3-4 record in the 3A/2A KingCo League.

It’s interesting, though, how different each of the boys is, team members say.

“If you didn’t know they were brothers, you’d never (guess),” head football coach Steve Supple said.

Parker, 16, is quiet and chooses his words carefully. He has short brown hair and a thick build. He plays on the defensive line separated from his brothers “in [his] own world.”

Jake, 16, oppositely has long blonde hair down past his shoulders and is tall and lanky. Jake is much more vocal than Parker and plays in the secondary.

Occasionally when someone is talking to them, they will make quick eye contact with each other and smile. From the outside, this is the only indication that they might be twins.

Josh, the oldest at 18 who also plays defensive back, is referred to as “the guy that beats the drum” by Supple. He says Josh has high expectations for his brothers and the rest of the team.

“Josh is the guy who’s the leader of the team, really — not just his brothers,” Supple said. “He’s the one who sets the tone and sets the pace.”

Sometimes, though, Josh’s expectations for his brothers can be a little too high and he thinks playing for his dad gave him the tools he needed to handle those expectations.

“[My dad] taught me how to to deal with brothers,” Josh said, “because he played with his older brother in high school, and how to not get really mad at them on every single play. And also be encouraging and not expect so much out of them, just because they’re your brothers.”

But just because Drew isn’t the coach of his sons’ team any longer, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t coach his sons.

“We go to the game, we play our game, we get on the bus, we go home and walk in the door and he’s already got comments for us,” Jake said. “He’s already been like, ‘Why did you do this?’ or ‘Why didn’t you do that?’

“I think everything [from football] always makes it home. If we ever have a problem, like sports-wise, like what we should do about something, we always talk to our dad to see if he can help us figure it out, because he’s great at that stuff,” Jake added.

“He’s probably hardest on me because I play on the D-line,” Parker said, “and last year he coached the D-line and I’m the only lineman in the family —so he gives me the most tips.”

On the field, Josh and Jake play on the same side of the defensive formation in the secondary, a situation that requires much communication between players. There is a lot of ground to cover on the back end of the defense and it is necessary that the defensive backs are always talking and that they trust each other in those situations.

That comes naturally to Josh and Jake. They never have to think about communicating with each other. They say they don’t even have to signal to each other, that there is a trust that can be attributed to their brotherhood.

“They’re communicating with each other without having to communicate,” Supple said. “Josh got an interception at Liberty this year — we were doing some things in the secondary that they were having to communicate and they did it without having to say it, just because they knew what each other was doing.”

“Me and [Josh], we make a lot of reads together and we know how each other play,” Jake added. “It’s easy. I know he’s got my back.”

Sam Barbee is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.