Sibling rivalry: Twin brothers working toward same goal
Ron and Don. It may sound like a radio morning show. But it’s really the duo of twin brother assistant coaches who faced off Saturday when Pacific played Utah State in the Spectrum.
Don Verlin is an assistant coach for the Aggies while his twin brother, Ron Verlin, is an assistant for Pacific.
“When you work in the same profession as your brother you have a natural bond,” Don Verlin said.
While the sibling rivalry is the same as it has always been, there’s another common bond that drives both of them – the Big West Conference Championship and subsequent berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Born on June 15, 1965, the brothers attended Del Oro High School in Loomis, Calif., where they both played basketball. Don attended Cal State-Stanislaus while Ron went to Sacramento State for his college education.
Their coaching careers started where their playing careers had ended, at Del Oro High School, when they both coached the freshman team. Their joint coaching career soon split as Don left to be an assistant at Columbia Junior College in California for three years.
Don then spent the 1992 season as a graduate assistant on the Colorado State University team under current Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill. He left CSU for two years to be an assistant at Division II Cal State-Bakersfield where CS Bakersfield won back-to-back national championships.
After that success Don returned to CSU as an assistant where he coached for the next five years for the Rams until Morrill came to Logan and brought Don with him.
“It’s a great working relationship,” Don said of Stew Morrill. “It helps that we have won a lot.”
Ron Verlin, on the other hand, went to coach at Sierra College and then spent a stint as an assistant at the University of Nevada for two seasons. Ron followed his brother as he coached at Columbia Junior College a couple years after Don had left. After two years at Columbia, Ron left to coach at Pacific in 1994, where he has been ever since.
Of all the stops he has made from high school to Division I, Ron said he likes Pacific the best since he’s been there the longest.
At Pacific, Ron started out on the offensive side of the court but as the staff changed so did his responsibility. Now Ron and Don coach opposite parts of the game, with Don on offense and Ron on defense.
“It would be best if we were coaching together,” Ron Verlin said. “But those days aren’t going to happen now.”
The brothers only make one trip a year to play in the other’s backyard but they said they keep it professional.
“He’ll stay with his team,” Don said. “He might drop by to say hello to my kids or he might do it at the game, but he won’t come over for dinner or anything like that.”
When you have to coach against your brother it isn’t as extreme as it might seem, Ron said.
“It’s difficult emotionally,” Ron said. “You’re not overly happy when you win and you’re not really pissed off when you lose because your brother is on the other end no matter what.”
Don said most people can tell the two apart after a little time with both of them. Ron said the Pacific players kid him about growing a mustache or having Don shave his and then switching benches for the game. When they were growing up Ron said they might have switched jerseys once but mostly they would impersonate the other on the phone with friends.
Ron has two sons who he said like to spend a lot of time in the gym. He wouldn’t keep them both from coaching he said, even after coaching in the same conference as his brother.
“If they wanted to coach and they loved the game I would recommend it,” Ron said, “whatever they feel comfortable doing.”
-krn@cc.usu.edu