Sibley Graduates Brennan And Anderson Still Close At Concordia

Calli Brennan and Katie Anderson can’t help but joke about what the future might hold. 

The Henry Sibley graduates and current juniors on the Concordia University softball team are eyeing careers in the medical field. And who knows? Maybe they’ll go to the same graduate school, find similar jobs in the same building, on the same floor, in the same office.

It’s not so far-fetched. Brennan and Anderson have been virtually inseparable since third grade, playing on an estimated 30 teams together before joining the same Golden Bears squad in college.

“It just comes so natural. You don’t find friends like this anymore,” Anderson said. “It’s just so real, and we’ve been friends since elementary school. We go to each other’s cabins. We hang out all the time. We never get sick of each other.”

Even when their compatibility gets in the way. Like the time they bought the same homecoming dress—a high school fashion no-no—prompting a return trip to the store.

“They’ve never gotten in a fight. It’s just crazy,” said Jean Brennan, Calli’s mother. “All our family vacations, Katie comes and is always welcome. She’s just like part of our family. They said they’ll have to marry brothers someday because they can’t get separated.”

“We just know each other so well that it’s easy to get along,” Calli Brennan said. “If someone sees us at a party they’re like, ‘Where is your other half?’”

On the field, each brings a quality that is irreplaceable to Concordia’s 23-13 team. Brennan leads the squad with a .417 batting average and is a consummate leader by example, according to coach Bob Bartel, while Anderson leads the team with 25 stolen bases and is one of the fastest softball players in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

“It’s great for Concordia to have both girls here,” Bartel said. “We’ve never had two closest friends here at the same time that came together at the same time since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here 12-13 years. I think it’s rare that you have two best friends like that playing that long together for the same school on the same softball team.”

It’s a friendship that began perhaps by chance. Being the only two girls on Sibley Area Youth Hockey boys mites team made it easy for the two to bond at 8-years-old. It was the first of many teams they’d play on together, including the Minnesota Sting’s U18 summer elite softball team while in high school.

Now, the pair are traversing college together—and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I just feel so much more comfortable doing something with her than by myself,” Anderson said. “Our parents still say, ‘Do something without her for once.’ I can’t. It’s just so natural. We just vibe off each other.”

What does the future hold? You can bet Brennan and Anderson will figure that out together.

“We’ve been through everything together,” Calli Brennan said. “Tears and happy times. We just know each other so well that it’s easy to get along.”