Twin brothers in Saskatchewan rack up impressive stats in sports

Saskatchewan's Bright Black Future: Mack and Wilson Reimche

Twin brothers Mack and Wilson Reimche are scoring big on the Saskatchewan sports scene.

The 12-year-old boys are only in Grade 7, but they've already been very successful in their respective sports of soccer and trampoline. 

Mack is  No. 4 on the leaderboard in the Saskatoon U13 premier boys division. And his brother, Wilson, is a trampolinist in Saskatoon who competes nationally, provincially and locally.

Wilson's been so successful, he was featured on a Cheerios ad for the Summer Olympics last year.

"I've been interested in playing sports since pretty much since I was born," Wilson said.

He began his journey as a competitive trampolinist at the age of eight when he was introduced to the sport at a summer camp. Since then, Wilson's been very dedicated, training about four days or 14 hours every week. He is at Level 5 at the national level in Double Mini Trampoline and Trampoline. 

This year, he made Team Sask. He has more than a dozen medals under his belt, including: third place in his category at the Pegasus Classic, a provincial competition held in Calgary earlier this month, second place at Elite Canada 2021,  a national competition hosted virtually by Gymnastics Canada in September 2021, and first place at Syncro Prairie Invitational 2020, a local competition held in Regina in March 2020. 

Wilson's goal is to compete at the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships one day.

While Wilson is soaring to great heights in an individual sport, his brother Mack is raising the bar playing soccer.

Mack started to take soccer seriously when he turned nine. He is consistently in the top five for points in U13 premier level boys soccer in Saskatoon and he plays defender most of the time. Last summer, he made it into a Provincial Soccer League team, and he hopes to do so again this year. His team also won silver in the Regina Winterfest soccer tournament in January 2022.

Mack also trains hard. He has soccer games and practices four to six days a week, depending on the season. And he's serious about his goal to be a professional player.

"I look up to Neymar Jr. He's one of the best soccer players in the world," Mack said. "I feel good about all the training because I know all that hard work will take me somewhere, and one day I can be like Neymar."

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is a Brazilian professional footballer who is best known for being one of the most prolific scorers in his country's storied football history.

Training pays off

Being a parent to such ambitious kids can definitely be demanding but for Jackie and Greg Reimche it's all worth it.

"It is very busy and expensive, but so thrilling to watch these boys grow into accomplished athletes," Jackie said. "We are so proud of the courage, hard work and perseverance they have both shown in their sports."

She also said most of their training is done in the evening and on weekends so they don't have to miss school unless there is a competition or tournament.

For now, Mack is looking forward to trying out for the Provincial Soccer League this summer and for greater opportunities to come in the under-15 age category this fall.  And Wilson has his eyes on competing in the next Elite Canada national competition March 16 to 18, which was scheduled to be hosted in Quebec but has been moved to a virtual competition again this year.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.