Soccer Sisters: Seniors Reese Birch and Cate Holzbeierlein have played soccer together since childhood and both committed to Tufts

As an excited head peered around from the front of the line, senior Cate Holzbeierlein nervously looked back at her best friend of 11 years, senior Reese Birch, in the front of the line of Tufts’ prospective soccer stars. It was the day the university’s head coach would single each girl in line to tell them if they got an offer to play for the elephants or not.

Both girls had been looking at Tufts as a possible school for them to play soccer next year, so they had decided to go to the camp together.

Birch shot Holzbeierlein a thumbs up — a sign that she’d been offered a position on the team. Now it was her turn to wait. All the way at the back of the line she started receiving “Let me know what he says” text messages. 

This was the second camp at Tufts that the girls had gone to together, the first was just supposed to be a tour of the East coast schools. 

“I didn’t know I was going until a week before the first time,” Cate said. “My mom just asked me if I wanted to go and I was like ‘sure.’ It sounds stupid, but when I first came [to Tufts], I felt like this is where I was gonna end up.” 

With no surprise, Holzbeierlein was offered a spot on the team as well when it was her turn at the front of the line. From playing at Legends club team in second grade to committing to the D3 college team, they did everything together. 

“I was like, ‘Of course this is how it happens,’” Cate’s mom, Jill Holzbeierlein, said. “It just felt sort of natural, like this is how it’s supposed to happen.” 

Being in the same friend group, going to practice every night of the week together and endless travel weekends has created a close relationship between the girls — their relationship is contagious as it rubbed off on their mothers as well.

“Liz [Birch] is one of my favorite people ever,” Jill said. “We try and do a lot of our own things while we are on these trips with the girls because there is so much downtime for us.” 

Traveling to Boston, Seattle and San Diego together has created numerous memories from sightseeing to going to the beach. But some of the more core memories happen in less glamorous places like St. Louis. That’s what Cate recalls being her favorite trip — they won the tournament hosted there. 

“Even though the travel isn’t always super fun, I’m always grateful for the time I get to spend with Cate,” Jill said. “It’s just a lot of concentrated quality time, whether that is finding a fun restaurant or just running to CVS.” 

Outside of their travel club teams, the two play on East’s varsity team. Their close relationship on and off the field provides lots of laughs for the whole team. 

“They’re kind of more like sisters than just friends,” their teammate and senior Ashley Koch said. “They are always super playful and boss each other around.” 

A lot of laughs on the team are caused by Cate’s severe phobia of worms. One morning at practice, Birch found a worm in the turf and set it on Cate’s keys. Cate freaked out so badly that she wouldn’t go near them until she was sure it was off. Their close relationship and antics off the field has made their on-field relationship even stronger. 

“They have a really good chemistry,” East soccer coach James Kelly said. “They know how to control the field together even though they play very different positions.” 

Although they play contrasting positions on the field, they let their teamwork help them win the game. Birch is a midfielder whereas Cate is a defender — controlling the game by protecting the goal.

“It’s not as hard to yell at her,” Reese said. “When I’m on the field I sometimes have to worry about hurting someone’s feelings but with Cate we [both] know it doesn’t mean anything personal.” 

With them, nothing is personal. Between demanding soccer schedules, AP class homework and trying to balance a social life, things can get stressful. They always try to make things lighter with their playful relationship. 

“One of my favorite memories is our drives to games blaring the ‘Pitch Perfect” soundtrack,” Cate said. “We’re just so comfortable around each other that it makes things super fun. 
At graduation, when most seniors will go separate ways, the two will still have each other for carpool karaoke drives and to yell at to pass the ball.