Getting a Firm Hold on Their Future : The Harvey Twins Wrestle with College Choices and the Idea of Splitting Up

As the afterglow of their first- and second-place performances in the state prep wrestling tournament last month in Stockton begins to fade, Keith and Kevin Harvey, identical twins from Newberry Park, are seriously considering breaking up the act.

Slightly burned out and anxious to find colleges to continue their educations, they are tired of school, tired of wrestling and, after 18 years, tired of each other.

“I’d like to go to a different school and establish my own identity,” said Keith, who won the 119-pound division.

“I think we’re gonna end up splitting up,” said Kevin, who finished a close second in the 112-pound division. “I think it would be good to get away from my twin, so people can know me as myself.”

Not everyone agrees that splitting up would be best. “If I were a coach, I’d want both of them pushing each other on,” said Robin Harvey, their father, a Malibu physicist.

“They’re very competitive between themselves,” said George Hurley, the twins’ high school coach. “I’d say their sibling rivalry played a big role in making them as good as they are. It’s very rare on the high school level for a boy to have a state championship-caliber wrestler to practice with every day.”

And finally, there is Cal State Fullerton’s wrestling coach, Dan Lewis, who has the most to gain by keeping the twins together. “It’s important to recruit them as brothers,” he said. “They’ll both work harder.

But Robin Harvey and Lewis say they understand the brothers’ desire to break up their floor act.

Those personality differences are manifested in their attitudes toward wrestling, which has been the biggest part of their lives the past four years.

“I’m not as dedicated as my brother,” said Keith, who won his division. “He wants to do well in college and try out for the Olympics. He pushes me, but I slow him down. I’m more interested in college academically.”

But the sibling rivalry may play a part in in Kevin’s willingness to endure the Spartan regimen required to become a top collegiate wrestler and Olympic candidate.

“I’m going to have to work hard through college, since I won’t have my brother to work with,” said Kevin, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery two weeks ago to repair a partial ligament tear he suffered in a skiing accident.

Lewis thinks the disparity in the twins’ interest in collegiate wrestling will disappear as the season approaches.

For now, the twins are shopping around for schools. Both have solid B averages--not good enough for entrance into some of the schools they would like to attend.

Because of his championship and 44-1 record, Keith is the most heavily recruited.

Keith decisioned Covina’s Frank Trujillo, 3-1, in overtime to win his weight division.

Kevin’s controversial 2-0 loss in the finals to Calexico’s Robert Tavarez at the buzzer has narrowed his list of possibilities. He finished the season 41-6.

But financial considerations may be an obstacle for the Harvey family as it would to any middle- class family trying to cope with today’s escalating costs of higher education. The Harveys already have their oldest son at UC Santa Barbara.

“Very few schools allow full wrestling scholarships,” Lewis said. “They are limited to 11 scholarships by the NCAA, so they split them up.

“A middle-class family doesn’t qualify for financial aid, so the middle-class athlete has a problem. Most wrestlers are from the middle class.”

But the Harvey family has thrived on challenges since bringing two hyperactive twins into the world. “When we lived back in Rutherford, N.J., we lived in a two-story house, and the neighbors used to tell us they’d see the twins climbing out their second-story bedroom window and into our bedroom window when they were only 2 years old,” said Nancy Harvey. “I think they were glad to see us leave.”

“They were extremely agile youngsters,” said Robin Harvey. “Because of their tumbling ability, we entered them in a gymnastics class, but the class was 99.9% female, and they were the only boys. They didn’t want anything to do with that.”

After flirtations with soccer and tennis, Keith and Kevin found their niche on the wrestling mat.

“Their coach at the time, Dan Pry, talked their ears off and convinced them wrestling was right for them,” Robin Harvey said.

“It turned out it was the best sport for them,” said Nancy Harvey. It furthered their self-esteem and was a good outlet.”

Now that the passage of time, interest in girls and their growing individuality threaten to send Kevin and Keith their separate ways, Robin and Nancy Harvey look back with a rich mixture of feelings.

“It’s been exciting, tedious, difficult and fun,” said Robin Harvey.