Springfield Middle twins don’t run from physical challenges

Will and Alex McInnis can’t comprehend what they mean to the Springfield Middle School community, but Mustangs track coach Chris Brown certainly can.

Brown remembers the twins from his days working basketball and soccer leagues at the local YMCA when the boys were younger. They’re hard to forget. Both have severe light sensitivities that run in their family, forcing them to wear glasses when they’re outside or around bright lights.

They are tall and lanky eighth-graders who run on legs that barely appear capable of supporting their body weight, and when they came out for the track team this past season, Brown was hesitant with how he would work them.

“I initially didn’t know what to do with them because it seemed like they were hurting at certain points,” he said.

“I didn’t want to push them too hard, and there were some cases where I’d tell them to slow down, but they’d never do it. They’ve transitioned from the beginning of the season as far as effort because they’re so determined and persistent. They’ve progressed throughout the season so much. Yeah, they haven’t run world record times, but they’ve progressed so much and anything we tell them to do they do it. They are just so willing.”

Will runs the 100- and 200-meter dashes and even made the sprint medley relay team.

“That’s how good of a job Will has done,” Brown said.

“You don’t put just anyone on a relay team. Those spots go to people who are showing the effort and performing and that’s how hard he’s worked and how much he’s progressed.”

Alex has progressed, too. He is a 100 and 200 runner, but has even more hurdles to cross.

Will was born first just minutes before Alex. Either right at or right before birth, Alex suffered a stroke and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a permanent movement disorder which effects muscles, causing weakness and stiffness. He had surgery on a tendon a year ago after developing a bad callous on his foot. It’s getting better all of the time, he said, but he still experiences some pain when he runs.

Just weeks before the track season began, Alex had yet another surgery and came out of the gates slowly, but has worked incredibly hard to get to where he is now – mostly pain free in his running and a huge inspiration to his coach, teammates and parents.

“Alex has the most difficulties with the running, but he has had the best transition,” Brown said.

“He had just come off a surgery three weeks before the season started. You could see him limping and tell that he was hurting, but now he’s a completely different athlete. Both of them work so hard. They’re the heart of this team. You see them giving it their all every day and it’s encouraging to other people. Sometimes we’ll point it out to someone and you’ll see them step up because they have an example to follow.”

But the McInnis brothers don’t see themselves as inspirational leaders who will be freshmen at Fort Mill High next year. The way they see it they’re twin brothers and best friends who share a room and an intuition only twins can understand.

“It kind of feels good to be an example but it’s just doing what we’re supposed to do so it’s not special or anything,” Will said.

“We know we can’t slack off. We know if we slack off the whole team will, so we try to do our best. We want to do it to keep getting better as the season has gone on.”

They have done that. Both runners set multiple personal best times on the track during the recently ended season and are relentless workers who are just out to put their best foot forward.

But to their mom, Robin McInnis, coach Brown and their teammates, the twins are a great example.

“They don’t see that they’re doing anything special,” Robin McInnis said.

“That’s great because it means that what we’re trying to do is paying off. They get what my husband and I are trying to instill in them. We always tell them that someone has a harder path than they have and someone always has it a little worse than you. Alex is a patient at Shriners Hospital and you see a little bit of everything there from wheelchair-bound children who will never walk and then there’s Alex running around and jumping off the chair. I have to tell him to quiet down, but as parents we’re proud of them.”

Brown is too. It’s not just for the work ethic they display every day and the countless hours they’ve spent training, but for what that’s meant to him as a man and as a coach.

“I love it,” Brown said.

“For me as a coach it was a challenge because I didn’t want to hurt them, but balancing it and watching them work has made me a much better coach and person. You see them giving all of their effort, so I’m not going to hold out on them or anyone else on the team. I’m going to give it everything and anything I have. They’ve been as much inspirational to me as they’ve been to the kids, so I’ve learned so much and grown so much from them.”

Alex wants to join the JROTC next year. The boys may try out for the Yellow Jackets track team and said they’re equal parts nervous and excited for high school, especially doing so together.

“We’re best friends,” Alex said.

“We share a room, we fight sometimes but the best part is being a twin. Sometimes people don’t know what we’re laughing at. There are times where we’re cracking up laughing and people ask what we’re laughing at but we say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a twin thing.’”

The twins are just being themselves and to theor mom, that’s all she can ask for.

“To raise kids that are over-comers is a good thing,” she said.

“We don’t need kids who are the smartest or most popular kids or who excel at everything, but they make us pretty proud. They go out there, try hard and give it their best and that’s all we can ask of them.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Springfield Middle twins don’t run from physical challenges."