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Sydnie (left) and Kenzie Henderson smile as they show off their track starting positions. The fraternal twins are star athletes in several sports at Oglethorpe County, including volleyball, cross country, basketball and track. (LAUREN HILL/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO)
Kenzie and Sydnie Henderson are twin sisters who don’t resemble each other. Their drive for athletic excellence, however, is identical.
The Hendersons are fraternal twins who have been making their mark on various varsity sports at Oglethorpe County High School, including volleyball, cross country, basketball and track. Their impact has continued into 2023 — their junior year.
Recently, Sydnie Henderson won Clarke Central’s Gladiator Invitational in cross country with a time of 20:28.29, outpacing the second-place runner by a full minute. This fall, Kenzie leads the volleyball team with 86 kills, 2.5 kills per set and has the highest hitting percentage at .292.
The twins’ participation in sports began in middle school, when Kenzie ran track in sixth grade and started playing basketball and volleyball in seventh. Sydnie started running track in sixth grade, cross country in seventh grade and even dabbled in soccer during her eighth-grade year.
“I was always an active kid in primary school, I just remember always dominating,” Kenzie said. “My coaches and teachers told me ‘You need to play sports when you get in middle school and high school.’”
Athleticism runs in the Henderson bloodline. Three of the twins’ siblings ran track, and their father, Rudolph Henderson, played guard for the University of Georgia football team from 1985-1988.
As such, Sydnie and Kenzie Henderson credit their father for giving them their athletic abilities.
“I just encouraged them to get involved in (sports) and put the work in to see what happens,” Rudolph said. “Good things have been happening.”
Sydnie’s success
Sydnie excels in both cross country and track and field, setting school records and consistently setting personal records.
OCHS’ varsity cross country coach Melissa McGarity said Sydnie is the top female runner.
However, Sydnie doesn’t let this praise go to her head, as she said she doesn’t “really get under pressure.”
She won state in the Class AA 800-meter state title as a freshman and was having a successful state meet last spring, but she was disqualified after she mistakenly participated in five events, one more than the Georgia High School Association allows.
Even so, there was only one thought on Sydnie’s mind: “All I could think is I want a PR, I want a PR.”
She earned her personal record with a time of 2:24.80 in the 800 meters.
Kenzie’s quest
Kenzie is a three-sport athlete, lettering in volleyball, basketball and track and field.
Her pregame ritual does not involve a lucky item of clothing or a hype song — it’s simpler than that.
“I make sure I have a good day in general because if I have a bad day, even at school, the game isn’t going to be right,” Kenzie said. “I just make sure that nothing is getting in my head, and I brush it off because I know it’s game day and I have to get my mind straight.”
During her freshman year, Kenzie won the Class AA state high jump and the 300-meter hurdles. She made it two high jump championships in two years by winning the Class A Division I state title in May.
She also helped lead the girls basketball team to the Class A Division I Elite Eight last spring and the volleyball team to the state tournament last fall.
Competing together
Although the girls compete in different sports throughout the year, they run track together each spring. The twins feed off of each other's success, pushing each other to be better athletes as they compete together in the 4x400-meter relay.
“Sydnie's the star of the 400 (relay),” Kenzie said. “I’ve always asked her what her strategy is so that I can kind of do the same thing as she does. She tells me to sprint, the first 200 and then the curve, just kind of relax, but don't stop, and when you get to the last one, just kill it.”
When asked if they experience twin telepathy, the girls agreed that they have moments where they share thoughts, but not nearly as much as the media portrays about twins.
“We just have the chemistry of passing it to each other and it just feels easy. We don't really have to learn it,” Kenzie said. “Even though we haven't always been the closest, we still love each other and we have a good bond.”
As upperclassmen, the girls are starting to think about where they want to go to college and if they will continue being student athletes.
“I would love to do college sports because all the work and hours I've put in since I was in middle school, it would just be lost talent,” Kenzie said.