On a recent Saturday, parents Kris and Meg Flammang
watched a soccer game intently. Neither sat. Kris paced
up and down the eld, not saying a thing. In contrast,
Meg stood next to her empty folding chair, and shouted words
of encouragement to the nine players on the eld. After all, onethird
of them were her and Kris’ sons, numbers 21, 31, and 41.
The boys, Cooper, Jackson, and Quinn, are easy to spot. They’re
triplets, age 11, and while Jackson is a few inches taller than his
brothers, and while Cooper’s hair is more blond than brown, all
three sport the same distinctive haircut - shaved but with some
longer locks on top, in the front. According to Kris, the boys rst
saw the hairstyle on a soccer player in the 2014 World Cup, and
they’ve worn the same one ever since.
Cooper, Jackson, and Quinn are fth graders at Gene Witt
Elementary School. They are talented athletes who’ve been
playing organized sports since they were four. They all say
soccer is their number one passion, and that they want to play
professionally when they grow up. They play on the premier team
for the competitive Braden River Soccer Club in Lakewood Ranch
from August through May.
“They are the three most coachable kids I’ve ever coached,” said
Nick Leduc, a fourth-grade teacher at Braden River Elementary
School who coached the boys for two years. As players, all three
are outstanding, Leduc said. They never take criticism personally,
he added. Rather, they listen and trust that their coaches are
trying to help them improve. “If you teach them something
Thursday, you see it in the game Saturday,” Leduc said.
SPORTS STARS
The boys’ second favorite sport is ag football. In the winter,
they play Under the Lights, also in Lakewood Ranch, and their
father coaches their team. So, these days, the lives of every
family member (including the triplets’ younger sister Maya, 7,
who plays soccer on the Braden River recreational team) revolve
around sports.
The boys practice either soccer or ag football ve nights a
week. They have ag football games on Friday nights and soccer
games on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.
“We don’t watch TV during the week,” said the boys’ mother,
Meg. However, she said the family does watch college football
on weekends. Any college football, Meg says, although the
Nebraska Cornhuskers football team is the family’s favorite, since
Kris and Meg are both from Nebraska.
Finally, the Flammang triplets run for their school’s track team
each spring. The boys are three of the seven members of
the team, and they’ve also run in local 5K races. “They’ve
just always really loved sports,” Meg said. “They are very
competitive, but they are not competitive with each other. They
all have their strengths on the eld, but they are ne identifying
each other’s strengths.”
For instance, it seems well-established in the Flammang family
that Cooper is the fastest, strongest runner. In fact, what Cooper
says he loves most about soccer is “that you get to run a lot.”
The individual nature of running balances out Cooper’s two team
sports. “It’s really peaceful when you run,” Cooper said.
While he admits his strength is speed, when asked which brother
is the best at sports, Cooper answered: “We’re all about the
same.” Jackson said he too loves soccer partly because of the
“non- stop running and moving.”
“You can be creative in front of the goal,” Jackson said. “I like
attacking.” In football, Jackson likes playing defense the best.
“I like making interceptions and pulling ags,” he said. “I like
pushing myself.”
In their half-acre backyard, the boys have plenty of space to
practice together, which is what they do in their free time. “We’re
trying to always get better,” Cooper said.
The boys excel in sports, but they also shine in school,
consistently making dean’s list or honor roll. They also love music
and are in Gene Witt’s “Orffestra” - an orchestra using recorders,
xylophones, and drums - and they are in the school’s choir.
MIGHTY MULTIPLES
Twelve years ago, Meg and Kris Flammang got the surprise of
their lives when they found out they were having triplets. Not only
triplets, male triplets. “We were completely shocked,” Meg said.
“After we got over the shock, we were so excited.”
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