On a football team, competition is inevitable as players have to compete for playing time. Two of the players competing for playing time live under the same roof.

Brothers senior Cody and sophomore Cole Walther are two defensive threats on the varsity football team that compete on the field and off the field. Cody is strong safety, also known as a rover, while Cole is a free safety. Cody has been a starter on varsity since his junior year, and this is Cole’s first year on varsity and first year as a starter.

“It’s not much different competing with Cole as he is a free safety and I am a strong safety,” Cody said. “It is really cool paying on the field at the same time as we play different types of safety now.

There is a lot of competition between the two on their performance.

“We definitely have a lot of competitions as brothers as last week was my first game back,” Cody said. “Whoever gets the most tackles in a game will be bragging in the others’ face, same with whoever gets the first pick in the season. We talk about that all of the time.”

Cody and Cole have many similarities, but they also have a few differences.

“While Cody and I have similarities, he has a lot more experience than I do,” Cole said. “He is definitely faster and stronger than I am.

Although Cody might be stronger and faster than Cole, Cody does admit that Cole has a few areas where he is better.

“Cole is probably a better deep safety than I,” Cody said. “He is a better open-field tackler, one on one, when plays break down, he’s been doing a great job making the open-field tackles.

In Cody’s first season as a starter, his junior year, he averaged 10.9 tackles per game, and Cole currently averages 9.5 tackles per game this season. Cole is trying to average more tackles per game than Cody did in his first year as a varsity starter.