Why pledges to Notre Dame, Lenoir-Rhyne are just ‘sprinkles on the icing on the cake’ for parents of Sam and Emma Pendleton

According to the 2018-19 NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report, high school male athletes have a 5.9 percent chance of playing their respective sport at the NCAA level. For females, the number is 6 percent. 

That means there is just a 0.35 percent chance of male-female siblings reaching that goal. 

But twins Sam and Emma Pendleton are used to overcoming the odds. Originally, Jason and April Pendleton didn’t think they could have children.

“It wasn’t really supposed to be in the realm of possibility that Sam and Emma would be here,” April said.

Sam and Emma were born as a result of in vitro fertilization, otherwise known as IVF. They arrived in this world six weeks early and weighed less than six pounds. They were originally part of a set of triplets, but the third baby was never born.

Further, Sam was born with an enlarged kidney, and he has since been through seven surgeries. He was not supposed to be able to play sports at all.

Fast forward 17 years. Sam, an interior offensive lineman, is headed to play football at Notre Dame in January as an early enrollee. Emma will head to Lenoir-Rhyne University in September 2023 where she will play center for the women’s basketball team.

The Pendleton twins overcame the odds. Again.

‘A built-in best friend’

Sam and Emma hail from a small town near Winston-Salem, N.C., and grew up in a rural area on a farm. Since birth, the twins have been inseparable. Their parents instilled a family-over-everything mentality in them from a young age.

“Being twins, you have a built-in best friend,” Emma said. “At a young age, it was always ‘Go play together! Go play in the woods! Go do things together!’ It wasn’t a forced thing. It was just a natural friendship.”

“We’re really close,” Sam added.

The two grew up in a sports family. Jason played offensive line at William & Mary, while April would have likely played college basketball if not for an injury. She attended Virginia Tech.

The twins had their first experiences with organized athletics before they headed to kindergarten. When they were 4 years old, Jason and April threw the kids into swimming. Emma was a backstroker and breaststroker, while Sam could do all four strokes, although he was best at both freestyle and butterfly. 

Sports came a bit more naturally to Sam, but both children were athletic. His ambition became abundantly clear from the moment he ran down a swimmer in the lane next to him during an early meet.

“At that moment, we realized he had a button,” April said. “That’s what we call his competitive side.”

From there, Sam and Emma went through the typical carousel of sports that most young kids endure. They played tee-ball and basketball on the same teams, and Sam played flag football until he could play in pads.

From third grade until entering high school at Pfafftown (N.C.) Reagan, April, a former high school educator, homeschooled Sam and Emma. The routine allowed her to set the schedule and get through school days without wasting much time so they could head to their respective sports.

Sam and Emma played co-ed basketball until fifth grade, and April served as their coach. That gave her a “front row seat” in their lives as they tried to find their respective passions.

“It was the greatest treasure,” April said.

Of course, it also made the carpool situation much easier.

Personalities diverge

As Sam and Emma continued to grow and go their separate ways on the court and on the field, their differing personalities began to shine through. 

“I would categorize Sam’s personality as a social butterfly,” Emma said. “He’s certainly more outgoing.”

He gets that “never-met-a-stranger” trait from his mother, while Emma’s personality more closely resembles that of her father — more introverted and content with her smaller group of friends. That’s not to be mistaken for a lack of kindness — both Sam and Emma radiate compassion. Emma is just more comfortable working behind the scenes. 

“I think something that really shows who she is as an athlete is she is no-nonsense,” Sam said of his sister. “She definitely knows what she wants. 

“I remember when we were on the same tee-ball team back when it was still co-ed, she sat down and said it was too hot. She didn’t play for the rest of the year. She was our team manager. She hasn’t played baseball or softball since.”

Sam laughed while he told the elementary school tee-ball anecdote, but it’s clear he has immense respect for Emma. Once she found her passion with basketball, Sam was right there cheering her on.

“It was fun to watch them part ways in sports, but then also come back together because it’s their mission to be able to talk to one another about who they like in their craft,” April said. “Sam’s very connected with the NBA or men’s college basketball, but if there’s a women’s game on, he’s right there with us watching it. 

“That’s what we do. We’re a sports family.”

Unsurprisingly, the two do share a similar set of personality traits. They wouldn’t be in their respective positions heading to play college athletics if they didn’t. They’re devoted, driven and determined. Jason and April supplied them with the tools necessary to succeed in athletics — things such as training and rides to practice before they could drive — but the rest was up to them. 

“I didn’t set schedules,” April said. “I would say, ‘These are the days you have workouts, this is what time you have workouts.’ I didn’t remind them. I didn’t set their clocks to get up. I didn’t do those kinds of things.”

Sam and Emma chose to do those kinds of things, a word that April heavily emphasized. It’s a big theme in the Pendleton household.

“They’ve just chosen to have goals, and they’ve chosen to do what they’ve needed to do to get there.”

‘This is actually something I could do’

Sam has been on a football team of some sort since before kindergarten, but he didn’t realize college football might be in the works until his junior year. 

“Last September was when I really started getting recruited, and it started taking off for me,” Sam said. 

Clemson and NC State were the early frontrunners before Notre Dame swooped into the picture in the final hour. 

“I went up to South Bend with (Notre Dame) behind some other schools,” Pendleton said in a Blue & Gold Twitter Space in May. “They were kind of late in my process, but I was like ‘I’ve talked to the coaches. I’m going to make it a point to go and see what they have to offer.’

“I was blown away.”

Sam made his verbal pledge to the Irish on April 25, citing tradition and academics as the lead rationale for choosing Notre Dame. He plans to major in mechanical engineering. Of course, working under offensive line coach Harry Hiestand is a major bonus as well.

Emma had a bit of a different path, although it, too, ended with college commitment prior to the start of senior year.

Up until around eighth grade, Emma was playing basketball for something to do. She enjoyed it, sure, but it was more of a fun activity than a lifestyle. Then an upperclassmen in a local homeschool league changed her mindset.

“‘Hey, you can really play travel basketball,’” Emma was told. “‘You could really pursue this.’

“So in the eighth grade, that was when I was like ‘OK, this is actually something I could do.’”

Emma joined a club team, where she played for a couple of years in early high school. Heading into her junior season, she started getting invites to prospect camps via any form of communication possible — texts, calls, letters in the mail. She went to various camps and her recruitment accelerated even more. On July 29, Emma committed to Lenoir-Rhyne.

To announce the decision, Emma did as many collegiate pledges do: she took to Twitter and went public with the commitment. It was accompanied by a graphic courtesy of 247Sports. 

Emma didn’t request that. Sam did.

“I just thought that was the coolest thing because he didn’t have to do that,” April said. “When she committed, it was no less of a big deal to him than his was for her.”

Go Bears! 🐻🐻🐻@CoachBCH @CoachCoreyReich @Philagirl13 @TomLoy247 @CoachGDSmith @Blakessimmons @JpendletonNc @onerunnermom pic.twitter.com/kvEsZmZ0UM

— Emma Pendleton (@Pendleton_emma5) July 29, 2022

A third Pendleton enters the mix

While changes were happening with regard to Sam and Emma’s daily schedules as they approached high school, another change arrived. When they were 12, the family took in a foster child, Eli. He was six months old at the time. 

He never left.

“I couldn’t imagine life without him,” Emma said. “He was such an amazing addition to our family.”

Eli, who is now 5, isn’t bothered by the age gap with his siblings. For all he knows, he’s 17 years old just like his brother and sister.

“When he’s with them, he’s 10 feet tall and bulletproof,” April said. “And that’s not in a touting or bragging way, just he’s never going to realize he can’t do something. He’s never going to have that mindset.”

Eli looks up to his siblings — both figuratively and literally, as Sam is 6-4 and Emma is 6-2 — but they play different roles in his life. Sam fills the quintessential brotherly role. He’ll come home and roughhouse with his younger brother, a game the family often calls Eli’s “stop, drop and roll.” In those moments, outside of the physical, they’re the same age. Sam might as well be 5, and Eli might as well be 17.

Then Emma steps in.

“Sam’s the antagonist,” Emma said with a laugh. “He’ll get into it with Eli, then I’m his comforter, and that’s a super sweet space.”

Eli has become one of Emma’s greatest teachers, too. Each day, Emma comes home and asks Eli if he has any advice for her. Eli imparts his wisdom, advising his sister not to hit, pinch or bite anyone.

“None of the bad stuff,” he’ll say, per his mom. “It’s hysterical.”

Since Eli joined the family less than a year into his life, he doesn’t know a world without Sam and Emma. Within the next year, he will have to get used to the life of an only child. It’s a difficult thing for anyone when a loved one moves away, but it’s especially hard for a young child to understand. 

“I think all he’s ever been around is us playing sports with friends, going to games and going to the gym,” Sam said. “But we’re close to him. We’re his closest friends.”

The looming split

The Pendletons have just around five months left as a family of five, at least physically. Phone calls, texting and FaceTimes will be plentiful once Sam leaves for Notre Dame, and they’ll only increase once Emma heads 90 minutes away to Lenior-Rhyne. 

“Oh, my gosh,” Emma said. “We’ve already started talking about that in the house, and it’s been a little bit emotional because we are so close. We’re trying to spend as much time as possible with each other right now to fill in that gap when we aren’t together.”

Thankfully for the family, including little Eli, there shouldn’t be too much overlap in Sam and Emma’s respective seasons. In theory, Emma can head to South Bend for a September game, while Sam will be free to head to a Lenior-Rhyne game or two in February.

“We’ll make it work,” Emma said.

But this isn’t a story about splitting up. It’s one about continuing down the same path, just as Sam and Emma have done since birth. Sure, there are minor differences in their interests, workout facilities and schedules, but at the end of the day, they’re just two kids heading off to college to pursue their passions in the classroom, on the court and on the field. 

“It’s awesome, because they’re awesome humans, not because of what they can do,” April said. “The (sports) just get to be sprinkles on the icing on the cake for their dad and me.”

Jason and April are just happy Sam and Emma are even here.