Liz and Doug Brenner’s relationship is anything but a sibling rivalry. The brother and sister have always been competitive, but are each other’s biggest supporters of their respective sports at the University of Oregon.
Liz, a junior, is a multi-sport athlete and was a finalist for the James E. Sullivan Award, given to the nation’s best amateur athlete. She’s best known for being a key member of Oregon’s volleyball team that went to the national championship game but has also taken part in basketball, softball and track and field in her first two years at Oregon. Doug is a freshman offensive lineman for the football team and is redshirting while playing center for the scout team. When asked what it was like to be competing at the highest level for the same school, both were all smiles.
“I absolutely love having him here,” Liz said. “He’s my best friend and we get along great.”
“It’s really awesome,” Doug said. “I’m really close with Elizabeth. She’s one of my best friends, and I’m just really glad we’re able to go to the same school and hang out a lot.”
Doug goes to as many home volleyball games as he can with his parents, Doug and Jennifer, and his older sister Mary Claire, a recent graduate of Oregon State University. And even though this is Doug’s redshirt season, Liz, Mary Claire and their parents travel to nearly all the Ducks’ home football games.
“We’ve never really gone on a family vacation I guess,” Jennifer said. “Usually our vacations are wherever the sport is, so we’ve gotten to see a lot of the United States that way, even Hawaii and Mexico.”
When Mary Claire was still in school, her parents were just as busy. She was an outfielder for the Beavers softball team for four years and competed in track and field in her final year of eligibility. She and Liz got to compete against each other in two meets last season, where Mary Claire said Liz “killed” her in the javelin throw.
As athletes, naturally all three siblings are competitive. But the consensus within the Brenner family is that Liz is by far the biggest competitor, regardless of the contest.
“Elizabeth is very competitive even just playing cards,” Jennifer said. “If she’s not winning she’s not happy.”
“It was always fun to beat her in those kinds of things,” Mary Claire said. “In her mind she thinks she should win everything so it was always pretty funny to watch that happen.”
Through the tense family card games and javelin throws, the Brenners have always been close. Mary Claire said she’s a “proud big sister,” and Doug said he and Jennifer are “very, very proud and honored parents.”
And even though Doug is the youngest, he’s still protective of his big sisters.
“I was always protective of my older sisters,” Doug said. “I’d always challenge guys that came over to arm wrestle and beat them and embarrass them.”
And now that Doug and Liz live on opposite sides of Franklin Boulevard, they can keep their close-knit relationship in tact, as if they never left home at all.