Becoming a college athlete is a monumental accomplishment that creates an immense amount of pride throughout the athlete’s family. Just one college athlete in a family is enough to be talking about. The Price family gets to experience double the amount of pride. The Price sisters, Frankie and Morgan, are both college gymnasts. Frankie is a sophomore at Arkansas, and Morgan is a freshman on Fisk’s inaugural team.
Growing up in a house full of talented athletes is a unique experience, especially when both of those athletes play the same sport. For the Price family, gymnastics began very early. Frankie started doing it when she was 3 years old, and Morgan started when she was 2. As for the why, it kind of just made sense.
“We just have athletic genes,” said Frankie. “My mom was a cheerleader, and my dad was in the MLB. Gymnastics is kind of similar to cheer, so I think it just kind of just fit the equation.”
For most of the Prices’ careers, they didn’t compete at the same level. Frankie’s older than Morgan, so she was usually a level ahead. It wasn’t until Morgan got to level 10 that the sisters were competing on the same team, and even then they didn’t go head to head because they were in different age groups.
When competing on the same club team, Frankie and Morgan learned how to support each other while also learning how to support their other teammates. They have pretty different personalities, so “learning how to deal with different people’s personalities like that really helped us strengthen our relationship as sisters and teammates,” said Morgan.
When the time came for Frankie and Morgan to begin looking at colleges, Frankie was recruited by Jordyn Wieber to join the Arkansas Razorbacks, and Morgan followed soon after. But Morgan’s commitment to Arkansas wasn’t because of Frankie’s—it was coincidental. As Morgan says, “it just so happened that I got a scholarship to the same school and then committed there.” Arkansas head coach Jordyn Wieber said that was intentional.
“My philosophy was to treat them as complete individuals and not actually recruit them as sisters,” said Wieber, who also made sure “that they had a full recruiting experience as an individual, separate from the fact that a sibling was involved.”
But Morgan didn’t end up at Arkansas. She switched her commitment to Fisk to be part of the first ever HBCU gymnastics team. “I knew that I have always wanted to go to an HBCU, so when I had the opportunity, I definitely had to think about the pros and cons of either staying at Arkansas or going to Fisk,” said Morgan.
Switching commitments is a big decision, but ultimately Morgan says it was the right one. “I loved Arkansas, but I do love this even more. It just feels like home, and I just love that I’m able to make history and just make an impact on the gymnastics world.”
Like many siblings would be, Frankie was excited to be on the same team as Morgan, and Morgan’s decision changed that. But Frankie knows that her sister made the right decision for her.
“I’m super proud of her for jumping on this opportunity because it doesn’t come to anyone. It was very, very mature of her to make the decision on her own,” said Frankie.
Even though Frankie and Morgan aren’t training and competing together anymore, they continue to support each other in their gymnastics and in their everyday lives, including with daily phone calls.
Living in different places is a big change for almost all siblings, but sometimes distance is exactly what a relationship needs to grow even stronger than it was before. “We’ve definitely gotten closer since we’ve been apart,” said Frankie. “Which is only helping us grow.”
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Article by Emily Lockard
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