JACK Trengove is known for his accurate kick and speed. While his sister Jess, 24, is still working on her kick, she too is known for her speed. With Jack as a professional footballer and Jess as a professional runner, this Trengove duo are certainly doing their South Australian home town of Naracoorte, extremely proud.
Jack about Jess
Jess is one of the best big sisters I could ask for. I’ve got another older sister Abbie, 23, and growing up they both looked after me really well. I really respect Jess as a sibling and as an athlete. She’s so committed with her running and work. I’m often on the phone to her asking her for advice because she’s done all the hard yards and I really respect her work ethic.
Even though Jess if four years older, people have often asked us if we’re twins. Which is weird, because Mum and Dad always joke that I I look so different to the girls that they had picked the wrong baby up at the hospital.
Jess and I have always been competitive. I’ve never liked coming second, even if it’s only a card game or a race in to the water at the beach. So in that case, I definitely wouldn’t go for a run with Jess these days. She’d smash me and I wouldn’t cop coming second! She’d never say outright that she would beat me but she just does that to trick me in to running with her so she can win.
I don’t envy Jess’ training schedule. She gets up at 6 am every morning, runs, goes to work as a physio, runs again and then finally comes home. She clocks up a massive 150 kilometres just in a week. She’s so committed.
I guess Jess and my love for sport comes from our parents. Mum and Dad are good, country folk who love all sports. Mum still plays tennis and netball and Dad loves to ride because that’s all he can with his shot knees. I’ve heard Mum and Dad didn’t do too badly in their day as sportsmen so no doubt we have inherited a bit from them.
Mum and Dad had it pretty easy with Jess and I as kids because we never really used to fight. Jess is really hard to annoying, nothing fazes her. Oh except for my heavy breathing. She hates long car trips with me because apparently my breathing is too loud!
I try to get a reaction out of Jess by picking on her about her blonde moments. She’s really academically intelligent but street wise- she’s just blonde. Her sense of direction is shocking.
I’ve come up with a few good nicknames for Jess and Abbie over the years and they’ve got some good ones for me too. Back home, I most commonly get called ‘Bert’. Mum started calling me ‘Jacklebert’ and then it got shortened to Bert and just stuck.
Weird nicknames are just one of the funny memories I have from my childhood with Jess and Abbie.
Even though Jess and Abbie had each other, for some reason they still felt that need to treat me like a girl. They used to dress me up in a range of their clothes and continually call me Jackie.
Before I was old enough to play footy, I attended way too many netball games with the girls. I always got roped in to filling in and as a result started playing netball in my own age group until parents of other girls complained that I was too rough!
I’m looking forward to heading back home over Christmas because in recent years, Jess and I have built up a bit of a competition in table tennis. We play and keep scores over the entire Christmas break. She’s never bet me but her competitive spirit keeps her coming back for more. She did get within six points one game, only to realise at the end of the game I was playing left handed!
Jess about Jack
Jack is a very level headed and mature (little!) brother. He often comes out with comments that make me feel as though he’s my older brother. I often turn to him for advice on any matter because I feel so comfortable sharing anything with him and know that he’ll give an honest response. He’s also a very funny person and often has the family in stitches.
As Jack said, some people mistake us for twins but recently at the Best and Fairest a reporter thought we were married!
Now that Jack and I have chosen to pursue different sports we are less competitive then we used to be. Although Abbie, Jack and I have a Facebook thread going with some competitive banter comparing skin folds etc. But when we were young, we wanted to win everything. I remember when we were in primary school, we wanted to win our age group championship trophy and discus was our weakest point. So we made our own discus out of cardboard, sand and masking tape. We even weighed it up and practiced with it until it fell apart!
As siblings do, we often pick on each other for funny things. Jack always picks on me for being short and I pick on him for turning a bit ‘metro’ since moving to Melbourne. Abbie and I hassled him when he started taking an interest in clothes.
Jack is known for coming up with obscure nicknames. He calls me Gaz Senior - yes, like the footballer. It’s a long story to explain how it came about but strangely enough, it has stuck.
You may have noticed from the Grand Final Footy Show that Jack can also perform off the footy field. Abbie and I used to dress him up in our ballet costumes - I think this is how he developed his moves like Jagger! Jack was also part of the Trenny Kids Choir and spent hours locked away with Abbie and preparing songs to sing to Mum and Dad. ‘Do Re Mi’ from The Sound of Music was definitely our best song.
When Jack was younger, he wanted to have a go and be involved in everything. Every Sunday morning we used to go on a family bike ride. Jack was probably no older than seven at the time and used to have a little bike with no gears. The whole family would set off on an hour long bike ride and Jack would be trailing by over 50 metres behind us and pedalling at about triple the speed. It would have been hilarious to witness as a driver passing by. I wouldn't be surprised if this experience helped to develop his stamina and determination!
As I said earlier, Jack is one of the best brothers I could ask for and I can’t wait to see what he has install for us in the coming years.
