Family matters: Siblings power Northwest Christian basketball squads

It’s not often that one high school has four siblings all starting on its varsity basketball teams. But when you come from a family with nine kids, you become accustomed to doing things a little bit out of the ordinary.

The Simpson family lives on the South Hill but commutes to Northwest Christian in Colbert, Washington. They have four biological children and five adopted from the Caribbean country of Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east.

The ages of Brian and Angie Simpson’s children span 16 years: Emarc (27), Ezekiel (23), Elvanie (22), Mackenzie (22), Dane (18), Christelle (17), Eckahelo (16), Kobe (16) and Lucy (11).

The Simpsons adopted Christelle and Eckahelo, at 3 and 2 years old respectively, in 2005. Emarc was adopted in 2007 while his biological siblings, Ezekiel and Elvanie, were brought over in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

Ezekiel and Elvanie were too old to be legally adopted, so the Simpsons helped them acquire temporary protective status cards and social security numbers so they could go to school and work.

“Originally, when we had our first daughter (Mackenzie), I thought one child’s enough, maybe two. But it just kind of developed from there,” Brian Simpson said.

“We love kids, my wife and I, and we went to Haiti and saw Eckahelo and Christelle and we knew we wanted to adopt those two. And in the process of traveling there many times, we met Emarc, who’s our oldest, and he just kind of touched us. He’s a very determined young man. And then we decided to adopt his sister and brother as time went on, too.

“So when (Emarc) came home, we had seven children at home. We weren’t pushing the envelope to bring the other two home. But when the earthquake happened, it opened a lot of doors to get them home quicker than we had anticipated.”

Dane, Eckahelo and Kobe all start for the Crusaders’ boys team, while Christelle is a point guard on the girls team.

Dane and Christelle, both seniors, are mulling options to continue their basketball careers in college. Both have played AAU ball since fourth grade.

“They just really want to play college basketball and are really focused on trying to get to that next level,” Brian Simpson said. “The amount of training they’ve done and the time and effort they’ve put in has been awesome to watch.”

Dane has drawn interest from Multnomah College in Oregon and Christelle is looking at Wenatchee Valley, among others.

“I think it’s a really unique situation to have three brothers that have started on varsity,” boys coach Aaron Spuler said. “They do a good job of pushing themselves to be better together and holding themselves accountable.”

“Christelle, she’s awesome,” girls coach Talara Frost said. “She just works really hard and that’s one of the things I love about her.”

Built-in teammates

With a family this big, they don’t need to go down to the city park to find a pickup game.

“Basketball has definitely been a huge part of our family ever since I was adopted into it,” Eckahelo said. “We’d have 2-on-2 or 4-on-4, or whatever we wanted to. And that would always be fun because that’s all we would do in the summer was just play.

“The competition was really nice because we’d always bicker with each other, make jokes with each other and that’s really fun.”

It’s harder for them to find a quiet place to study sometimes.

“Oh, no, it’s never quiet,” Eckahelo said. “Because we also have three dogs. It’s always cramped. Trying to do homework is always kind of tough.”

“In a certain part of our house the walls are thin, so we can kind of hear the yelling and everything,” Christelle said. … “So sometimes I just put my headphones in. And sometimes I just lock myself in my room and just do that instead.”

They didn’t always have the option to escape, though.

“When we were younger, we did have to share rooms,” Christelle said. “The boys were together. Sometimes my sisters and I were together. It was really fun growing up in a big family with dogs and chickens and hamsters and turtles and fish.”

“It’s definitely kind of tough growing up with eight other people in the house,” Eckahelo said. “Me, Dane and Kobe and my older brother Ezekiel used to share a room, so that was kind of packed until Ezekiel moved out to his own room.”

Brian Simpson joked that he needed the Partridge family bus to take the entire family out to eat.

“It was … it was busy,” he said of raising nine kids. “I can’t put it any other way. Kids are sharing rooms and laundry was going nonstop and, you know keeping their mouths fed was a chore unto itself.”

Answering questions

Dealing with a mixed-race family with adopted kids in Northeast Washington isn’t always easy. The Simpsons say they’ve had a few run-ins, but their togetherness has always helped them with any trouble they might run into.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Eckahelo said. “People always make jokes, you know, cross the line a lot, but I’m not going to take that because that’s my brother. That’s my family. That’s what I’ve known ever since I was adopted into it. When people cross the line like that, it’s definitely tough.

“We all stand up for each other, no matter what, because we all love each other. And we are all just one big family, you know. If one person is getting any crap for something, you’re about to get eight people that are going to come down on you.”

“People will judge us and say, ‘He’s not your real brother,’ ” Kobe said. “But in my heart, he is my real brother. I’ve known him since I was born. And sure, they’ll say all they want, but it just doesn’t really affect me or my family.”

Christelle said she hasn’t heard any mean-spirited comments, but friends have been inquisitive about her family dynamic.

“I’ve never had anyone say things like, ‘Oh, you’re living with white people?’ and all that stuff. Instead, they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool. You’re from Haiti?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ And they’re just like curious about it. But they’re never offensive.”

On the court

Figuring they have played with and against each other their entire lives, there’s no one better to give a scouting report for the players than their siblings.

“Eckahelo, he’s that player, that small forward – he can play a guard too, and a big – who isn’t the tallest, but he’s very strong,” Kobe said. “He can take it inside and also can shoot the 3-ball and he’s very athletic as well.

“Dane, he’s can shoot it from deep – like 5 feet past the 3-line – and he can take it inside and drive and he can pass as well.”

Dane sounds most like a coach when describing his siblings.

“Kobe’s strength is he has a quick first step as a sophomore and just has gotten a lot quicker,” he said. “His shot has developed a ton this last summer working out all. (Eckahelo) is very physical you know, gonna take it right to you in the lane and score it. He also has great passing skills – probably the best passer on the team.”

Eckahelo elaborated on his big brother’s game.

“Dane, he can shoot like crazy,” he said, while describing how during pickup games Dane will put it up – and hit – from anywhere on the court.

“And Kobe, I don’t want to admit this, but he’s the only person that has ever broken my ankles. Like no one else.”

So how about Christelle?

“She is very fast and she plays very hard.,” Dane said. “She plays very good defense.”

“She is a fighter,” Eckahelo added. “Because, you know, she’s small. So she has to work just a little bit harder to get shots and to get rebounds.”

Frost is happy to have Christelle’s experience and toughness on the floor this season.

“She does anything I ask her to do,” Frost said. “She’s just that kind of player: ‘What do you need me to do, coach, and I’ll do it.’ I’m just really lucky to get her here for her senior year.”

Christelle, who transferred to NWC for her senior season after playing at Lewis and Clark, came across her toughness naturally growing up playing against boys.

“As they got older and bigger, and I stopped growing, they got stronger and quicker and better at shooting,” she said.

“You know, she’s 5-foot-2 and she plays a lot like she’s 5-8, 5-9, because she just plays big and strong and doesn’t mind the physicality,” Frost said. “It was one of the first things I noticed about her when she played summer league with us last summer was she didn’t mind getting in there and bump and grind and get knocked down.”

The boys have relished the opportunity to play together, especially for Dane’s senior year.

“We always thought of it as kids growing up,” Dane said. “And when we all three realized that we’re all starting at the same time on the floor, that’s something I’ll remember the rest of my life, for sure.”