Kate and Caryl Drohan have the same dark brown hair, the same light blue eyes and the same love for softball. However, these identical twins are anything but identical in their coaching styles.
“Kate’s very disciplined, she’s very structured; things are set in that way. And then Caryl complements and adds to all that kind of stuff,” junior shortstop Emily Allard said. “Team meetings and postgame speeches are always headed by Kate, and then Caryl just jumps in whenever she wants. It’s awesome to see that Kate runs the show, but it’s just as much Caryl’s team as it is Kate’s.”
Caryl agreed that Kate, the slightly older twin, thrives in the management position, whereas the younger sister prefers to focus on the details.
“I really like to coach the fundamentals of the game,” Caryl said. “I would say I’m more of a micromanager, where Kate takes the bigger picture role.”
When Kate took over the Northwestern head coaching job in fall 2001, she immediately hired her sister, who had been coaching at Hofstra University in New York. Though Caryl’s official title is associate head coach, she is essentially the hitting coach for the team.
Unofficially, according to team members, Caryl’s job also entails cracking a joke when her sister gets too serious.
“She keeps it light,” senior first baseman Adrienne Monka said. “She’s the funny one.”
The two sisters have always been very close, Caryl said. But that does not mean that sibling spats don’t come up occasionally.
“I think that there are challenges at times, but we really respect those challenges,” Kate said. “Neither one of us takes ourselves too seriously, so that really helps. If we do have a run-in or there’s a challenging moment, we laugh about it very quickly.”
The twin effect also provides some comic relief for the team, which has been a useful tool during an up-and-down year for the Wildcats.
“There will be times when it’s a pretty serious moment and Kate will – not mess up her words (but) maybe throw a joke in there that we’re not quite sure we’re allowed to laugh at,” Allard said. “But Caryl will be behind her busting out laughing, trying not to laugh. That happens really often, at least two or three times a week.”
The duo will once again lead the team onto the diamond this weekend when the Cats (17-22, 5-7 Big Ten) take on Indiana (21-21, 5-7) for a three-game conference series, beginning with a Saturday match-up and closing with a doubleheader Sunday. The Hoosiers have excelled at home this year, going 7-3, including a win over then-No. 20 Michigan.
On paper, the Cats and Hoosiers seem evenly matched, with similar batting averages (.273 NU, .294 Indiana), on-base percentages (.376, .372) and earned run averages (4.26, 4.72). NU’s experience against tough opponents will be an advantage, with 32 of its 39 games coming against RPI top-100 opponents, including 15 games against the top 32. The Cats have earned 10 of their 17 wins against the top 100.
