Perryville football team features triplets in starting lineup

Triplets, from left, Aaron, Brad and Chris Ernst are senior starters for the 2-0 Perryville High School football team. Aaron and Brad play on the offensive line, while Chris plays on the defensive line.

TOM DAVIS ~ tdavis@semoball.com

Aaron, Brad and Chris Ernst have made it easier on themselves and the general public by gravitating toward sports.

Not ones to want to promote confusion, the triplets have found numerical identification can be helpful to others.

Even with their faces shielded by helmets, and wearing identical garb on their 6-foot, 215-pound frames, they are easiest to keep straight on Friday nights.

A Perryville Pirates football program makes it simple: Aaron is No. 67, Brad is No. 70 and Chris is No. 69.

All play in the trenches, with Aaron and Brad on the offensive line at left tackle and center, respectively, and Chris at defensive end. They've helped the Pirates get off to a 2-0 start, with the most recent win a 51-0 pounding of St. James.

Third-year Perryville coach Blane Boss walked into the triplet situation three years ago, and has seen their subtleties turn into distinct traits.

"Chris and Aaron look most similar," Boss said. "Brad looks the most different out of the three. They all talk different, they all act different and they all kind of dress different, too."

Triplets, from left, Aaron, Brad and Chris Ernst are senior starters for the 2-0 Perryville High School football team. Aaron and Brad play on the offensive line, while Chris plays on the defensive line. Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

Boss identifies Chris as more of a "boot and jeans type of guy," Aaron "kind of likes to joke" and wears "jeans and nicer clothes," while Brad is more sports-minded and likely to pick up a basketball and "wear gym clothes" after school.

While he readily identifies them now, he originally was thrown off his game in his first encounter. He has had experience with twins before, but the Ernsts were taking it to a new level.

"My first two or three weeks, probably longer than that, probably the first month, I really couldn't tell the difference," Boss said. "I really concentrated on it and made sure which one they were because I'm sure they get tired of being called their brother. So I tried to figure that out as soon as I could."

He smiles when he recalled one of the queues that sped the process.

"Having their numbers," Boss said. "Once we got their practice jersey number, that helped identify them, too."

There are a few ABCs in keeping the order.

On July 30, 2001, Jenny and Brian Ernst went from zero to three children in under 10 minutes. Aaron arrived first, followed by Brad, then Chris.

There would be no more siblings.

"We probably scared them," Chris said. "Three at once ... they probably decided that's it."

Brad said the ABC pecking order was coincidence.

"It just kind of happened I guess," Brad said. "They say they didn't mean it."

Triplets, from left, Brad, Chris and Aaron Ernst are senior starters for the 2-0 Perryville High School football team. Aaron and Brad play on the offensive line, while Chris plays on the defensive line. Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

A life of shared experience had begun, and many came while playing sports and are among their favorite memories.

"We always use to play baseball, just like having our dad, he use to coach, too," Brad said. "So with my dad coaching and both my brothers playing with me, it was kind of cool just to have everybody there."

The memories are a bit of a double-edged sword.

"What sucks, when we were growing up I had to share some stuff," Brad said. "Just stuff that we did, we had to all do it together."

Pirates senior running back Eli Bierk has been a classmate and friend of the triplets since preschool, and is particularly good friends with Chris. Both plan to graduate in December and join the U.S. Marines in February.

He's been able to tell them apart for years.

"I'd call Aaron the video gamer, and you got Brad, I guess he's more of a sports kind of guy, probably, and Chris he's more of an outdoorsman, I'd say," Bierk said. "They all hunt, but me and Chris have done a lot of hunting together."

He has seen others struggle with keeping the brothers straight, and reactions in a variety of settings.

"We've played basketball in middle school and stuff," Bierk said. "We'd go to different places and people would just freak out about it, because it's so odd."

But while the rest of the world often finds triplets a novelty, its life for Aaron, Brad and Chris.

As Chris says, "I never really got to experience anything else."

"It would be weird being an only child and not having two brothers that are the same age," Brad said. "It's just kind of what I grew up with."

Life to them is often answering to three names.

"A lot of times people call you the wrong name, and I just go with it," Aaron said.

While those from the outside may see the opportunity for some good practical jokes or taken advantage of circumstances by switching out on unsuspecting victims, the brothers have chosen not to go down that path. They've never sought to promote confusion.

The brothers hit a growth spurt around eighth grade, reaching their current heights and increasing their weights to around 170 pounds. It's when they started football.

"We always kind of wanted to play but never really got around to playing in the Perryville Youth Football (PYF)," Brad said. "Then seventh grade came around and I don't think any of us really thought about it, and then eighth grade a couple of our friends were playing, and all three of us started at the same time." The first year they became starters, and then again as freshmen.

They've stuck with it and began hitting the weight room. Chris is considered the strongest of the three, bench pressing around 280 pounds.

Brad started every game at center as a junior, and Aaron joined him as a starter on the line about midway through the season at left tackle. Chris began getting starts on the defensive side and is a backup to the offensive tackles.

Away from the football field, they've gravitated in different directions athletically. Aaron has played basketball throughout high school and throws the discus in track; Brad has played baseball throughout; Chris played golf last year. And some of the confusion is lifting in their appearance.

"When we were younger we looked a little bit more alike," Chris said. "As we grew older ... you can tell differences now."

Their directions will vary much moe after this year. Aaron and Brad plan to attend college, with the former not sure where he wants to go, and the latter wanting to attend Missouri. Chris will be off to the military.

'It's honestly going to be weird not having my brothers around just because we've been together all our lives," Brad said. "It'll be a little different, but I'll make friends."

But for the time being, the Ernsts and the rest of their teammates are looking for a season to remember.

Boss said the trio, along with other seniors, are doing their best to be leaders.

"They've always worked hard," Boss said. "They've shown up for everything. They want to win. I'm proud of them for that. Hopefully we keep doing that and going in the right direction."

And he'd welcome more confusion in the future.

"From a coaching standpoint, I wish we had more triplets," he said. "There would be more kids out here."