Danielle, Drew and Lindsey Edwards learned about basketball from a very young age.
They had Nerf basketballs in their cribs and hoops on their cul de sacs. Organized basketball started at 3 or 4 years old and a few years into elementary school, twins Danielle and Drew and their cousin Lindsey were winning Catholic Youth Organization championships.
That success had a lot to do with their first coaches — their fathers and mothers, all of whom were standout basketball players at Mount St. Mary's.
Darryle and Paul Edwards emerged as playground stars at St. Mary's Govans and in the Baltimore Neighborhood Basketball League before moving on to Calvert Hall, where younger brother Paul's 1982 team went 34-0 and was national champion.
They teamed to lead the Mountaineers to the 1985 Division II Final Four. Darryle's wife, Jan, and Paul's wife, Lisa, are from the Washington, D.C., suburbs and they all met at the Mount.
With that lineage, it's not surprising that their children excel at basketball. All three seniors were All-Metro first-team players last season and return as the top players on their No. 1- or No. 2-ranked teams.
Danielle, last winter's All-Metro Player of the Year, led No. 1 McDonogh to its second straight Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship. Drew was the top player for the Baltimore Catholic League finalist Cardinals. Lindsey led No. 2 Roland Park to the IAAM A Conference final for the first time in 10 years.
John Pribula, who ran St. Ursula's CYO program, saw something special in the trio from the start.
"I could tell they were going to be pretty good because they kind of dominated their teams," said Pribula. "One of the main things about them, a lot of kids throw the ball at the rim when they're younger and it seemed like they had the technique down already. A lot of kids, when they're good that young, it's because they're fast and tall. The technique the three of them had was unique."
At home, the cousins were encouraged to try other sports and they did — soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, tee-ball, track. They always came back to basketball, even though their parents never pushed it.
"It wasn't just basketball, but sports in general," Darryle said, "and the relationships that you can build through competition and the friends you make throughout your life. A lot of my closest friends to this day are guys that I played with and against in high school and college."
All three will coninue their basketball careers in college — Danielle at Clemson, Drew at Providence and Lindsey at High Point.
Now that recruiting is over, they can focus on making the most of their senior year, each one aiming to improve on already-strong careers.
Heading into high school, Drew faced the most pressure; he followed his brother Darryle, his father and his uncle to Calvert Hall. Young Darryle, however, suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic cardiovascular disease diagnosed in his sophomore year. Now 19, he hasn't been able to play since the diagnosis. His siblings and cousins are tested annually but haven't shown signs of the disease.
That shifted the comparisons with their father and uncle to Drew.
"All the time," Drew said, "I just laugh about it now, because they kind of knew who I was coming in there. It was kind of hard for me with big expectations, but I didn't think too much of it. I just started my own little story."
Cardinals coach John Bauersfeld said Drew handles the comparisons well and has emerged as a force in Calvert Hall's steady rise to No. 1 this preseason.
"I don't think his dad or uncle put that pressure on him, but he felt a little of the pressure when he first got here to make a big difference right away," Bauersfeld said. "As he's gotten older, he's realized that he has to play how Drew plays and he did a good job of that last year. This year, he's really making his mark."
Drew, a 6-foot-4 swing player, and Danielle, a 5-7 point guard, have a lot in common on the court. Both versatile guards, they handle the ball, shoot the 3-pointer, make great passes and excel at defense. Each is a stabilizing force on the court. Drew is also an aggressive rebounder.
Lindsey, a 5-10 forward-guard, provides the same calming influence on the court that her cousins have. She also followed an older sibling to Roland Park. Lauren, 21 and the oldest of the five cousins, played basketball in high school but now plays volleyball at Fairleigh Dickinson.
Danielle and Lindsey had no idea when they went to different high schools that those two basketball programs would turn into one of the area's top rivalries. They know each other so well that their coaches — including Paul, an assistant coach at Roland Park — usually have them guard each other.
"It has gotten easier over the years," said Lindsey. "We just have to separate the family and the competition for that 32 minutes we're playing. I don't think the outcome of a game would break the family apart. We're competitive. We're a competitive family, but we're family at the end of the day."
Danielle said when she first played against Lindsey she was afraid she might pass her the ball because they had always played together and were still AAU teammates. That changed in a hurry.
"When we're on the court, I don't see her as my cousin," Danielle said. "I'm pretty sure she's caught a couple elbows from me in between the lines, but, like she said, at the end of the day we still are family."
A lot of the 17-year olds' success comes not just from their early education in the fundamentals but from their competitive drive, something Roland Park coach Scott Buckley said is a family trait.
They fed that drive in the street, on the cul de sacs where they live a few minutes apart in Perry Hall. With portable hoops at each end, the street in front of Lindsey's house became a full court. Sometimes kids, moms and dads all would play.
Danielle's brothers used to beat up on her in those games, but she says that made her tougher. Drew honed many of his skills at those neighborhood basketball hoops while waiting to get taller than Lindsey, whom he finally outgrew in sixth grade. Paul also took Lindsey to play pickup with him, where she said she learned to hold her own in a physical game against older guys.
"They've been taught the game the right way," Bauersfeld said. "It's been ingrained in them how to play and how to make simple decisions on the court. That's something they've been learning since they were 4 or 5 years old. That's not something you learn over night. It goes back to Darryle and Uncle Paul and to their dad ("Big Paul" Edwards) who coached them."
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