Athletic genes and a competitive spirit run in the Afoa family, so it's no surprise sisters Shaina and Sierra find themselves on one of the top-ranked Division II basketball teams in the country.
Their mother, Sarah, is in the Alaska High School Hall of Fame for a reason — she collected 28 state championship medals during her days at Dimond High.
Couple genetics with hard work and you get a player and a coach who are both on a mission with the fifth-ranked UAA women's basketball team, which is on track to earn a third straight berth in the Division II tournament.
Shaina coaches the UAA post players, a group that included Sierra, a 5-foot-10 sophomore who is averaging 4.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game for the 15-1 Seawolves. Shaina is in her fourth season with the program and her first as the top assistant.
"The Afoa family is as tight of a family as I've ever seen," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "I have a great deal of respect for Coach Afoa. She does a great job with the post players and has a really unique blessing ... to be able to coach her sister."
Having sisters coach and play for the same team together isn't common, but it's not the rarest feature of the Afoa family. Each sister has a twin. Shaina, 27, has a twin sister, Savannah, and Sierra, 21, has a twin brother, Stanson.
All four were standouts at Dimond. Name a sport and the Afoas have probably competed in it.
They have competed in volleyball, basketball, softball, football and track and field. During high school the sisters focused on basketball and volleyball, and Stanson focused on track and field with the Lynx and volleyball with a club team.
Shaina and Sierra were quick to name their brother the best athlete of the bunch.
"Pretty much anything you threw him into, he could do," Sierra said. "Any sport — it didn't matter, he was going to be successful in it."
Hall of Fame mom, coach dad
For Shaina and Sierra, the path to the top tier of Division II college basketball started with their parents.
Little in high school beats winning a state championship. Hoisting the trophy and earning a banner that will hang in the school's gym until the end of time can be the pinnacle of success for a high school kid.
Sarah Afoa experienced that joy multiple times.
In her high school days at Dimond, where she was known as Sarah Sullivan, she won two state basketball championships and a volleyball state championship. She was named the Player of the Year in basketball one season and was named to several all-star teams. She helped the Lynx set a state track record in the mile relay and she claimed a second-place finish in the triple jump.
"I love track and field," said Sarah, who graduated in 1979. "One of my favorite moments, I know it sounds silly, but my team set the mile relay record before it went metric."
She went on to play both volleyball and basketball at North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene. After finishing her eligibility at the two-year school, she transferred to UAA, where she finished her collegiate career in both sports.
Sarah met her husband, Stan, in high school. He's an assistant coach for Dimond's powerhouse volleyball team and used to officiate UAA volleyball matches.
Shaina said her father's influence inspired her to pursue coaching.
"My dad was just a really good coach and could relate to the girls and I really enjoyed learning from him," she said. "I just decided that's what I wanted to do."
Growing up in a gym
With their parents constantly in the gym — and for Sierra and Stanson, their older siblings as well — sports were a way of life for the Afoas.
Before they were old enough to play, Sierra and Stanson served as managers and water boy and water girl for their older sisters' teams, which allowed them to be included in the action.
"We grew up in a gym," Sierra said. "I remember watching my parents play volleyball all the time."
The kids chose to play sports instead of work during high school, and it paid dividends. All four played sports in college.
Shaina competed in basketball, volleyball and track and field at Central Washington, and Savannah competed in basketball and track and field at Colorado School of Mines. Stanson played a year of volleyball at Emerson College before going abroad to study in Europe, and Sierra picked UAA for basketball.
Having the kids spread out at different universities was hard for the tight-knit family, Sarah said.
"When Shaina and Savannah went away to college, they were really sad," she said. "They felt like they were missing out on raising Sierra and Stanson."
Shaina and Savannah moved back to Anchorage after college. Stanson, who still lives out of state, returned for the holidays in time to see Shaina and Sierra at last weekend's Seawolf Hoops Classic — which happened on the same weekend as Sierra and Stanson's birthday.
Why relax on a cruise?
A Caribbean cruise is the definition of leisure and fun for most people. Not so for the competitive Afoa clan.
While on a family vacation in the summer of 2014, the four siblings and their dad found a sixth player and entered a tournament on the cruise ship. A team with such a rich athletic and volleyball tradition couldn't lose to a random rag-tag team in a recreational tournament, could it?
The Afoas lost in the first round.
"We lost to someone who was wearing a GoPro," Shaina said. "It really pissed us off."
They were so mad they couldn't talk to each other, she said.
But now, the sisters laugh about their cruise ship volleyball nightmare, especially since they have many more positive memories.
"I just remember playing 3-on-3 in the gym on Sundays," Sierra said. "Mom and dad would each have a team, and we'd be like, 'Whoever loses has to buy ice cream.' "
Coming full circle
When Shaina decided she wanted to pursue a coaching career, she applied to 11 places. Only two people responded, including McCarthy.
McCarthy remembered Shaina from when he was an assistant coach at Northwest Nazarene and she was a player at Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Central Washington.
"I was just lucky that UAA had an opening and that Coach McCarthy knew me from playing against him when he coached at NNU," Shaina said. "It was just the right-place, right-time situation."
A year after McCarthy hired Shaina, Sierra decided she wanted to play for UAA rather than leave Alaska.
"Once (Shaina) started coaching at UAA, I went to more games and just saw the atmosphere that they had," Sierra said. "That's when I knew I wanted to stay home, be around family, but also be in this program."
McCarthy said he wasn't worried about signing the sister of his assistant coach. But he did have concerns about Sierra's height. She is 5-10 on a good day.
"I had reservations that I'd just signed a 5-9 post," McCarthy joked. "But I didn't necessarily (have reservations) with the relationship between the two. I trust Coach Afoa 100 percent and Sierra too."
Under the guidance of McCarthy and her sister, Sierra has developed into a force off the bench for the Seawolves.
She averages 16.1 minutes per game and is shooting 48.9 percent from the field. She also has 11 steals and two blocks in 14 games.
"Sierra has exceeded all expectations coming into this program and working her way into the position she is," McCarthy said.
When Sierra joined the team, Shaina struggled to balance the sister-sister relationship with the coach-player relationship, partly because she really wanted Sierra to succeed.
"It was hard for me to sometimes let go of basketball when we get home, and I just talk hoops nonstop," Shaina said. "And then it was hard for me to not look at her as a sister too out on the court because of course I want my family to do the best."
The sisters ultimately devised a way to differentiate their dual relationships. Sierra specifically lets Shaina know whether she is talking to her as "sister Shaina" or "Coach Afoa." Shaina does the same with Sierra.
The system helps with communication between the sisters, but it can make for some funny moments at the dinner table.
"Sometimes I'll be talking to my parents about (Shaina) and I'll be like, 'Coach Afoa said ...' and they're like 'Who?' " Sierra said.
Sarah and Stan Afoa attend all of UAA's home games. They sit in the same seats for every game — in the stands directly across from the UAA bench.
"Nothing touches my heart more than when Sierra performs on the court (and) you can hear Shaina above everyone else going, 'Atta babe Si,' " Sarah said.