Originally Appeared on Vype

Casey Collier loves his older sister, Charli. He admires and adores her. Few families, in fact, are tighter than the Colliers—19-year-old Charli, 16-year-old Casey, and mother Ponda.

Still, that doesn't mean Casey didn't grow weary the last few years of being "Charli's brother." The two played basketball every day growing up, and it wasn't until recently that Casey finally outgrew Charli and they finally stopped playing competitively.

But until then, their battles on the court were one-sided, and Charli enjoyed letting Casey know about it.

"She would beat me a lot. She'd block my shot all the time," said Casey, a junior offensive tackle for Barbers Hill High. "My freshman year, while we were scrimmaging at school, boys versus girls, she blocked my shot in front of everybody."

Charli, now contributing as a freshman 6-foot-5 post player for the University of Texas, is a Barbers Hill legend after totaling more than 3,500 points and 1,400 rebounds in her high school career. Casey wants the same stature for himself. That is why, during the spring of 2018, he decided to put down a basketball for good and focus strictly on football, the sport which he knew had his ticket to bigger and better things.

"It's not bad, because I love my sister," Casey said of growing up in Charli's shadow. "It just pushes me to make my own name. I don't want it to be all the time where it's like, 'Oh, you're Charli's brother.' I saw her get all those offers and all those colleges she was looking at. She worked hard to get that. I knew if I worked just as hard, that could be the same thing for me."

The 2018 season was Casey's first on varsity, and he played well. The 6-foot-7, 292-pounder allowed just two sacks in starting every game for the 7-4 Eagles.

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