Akron – The Goble triplets are not going to get away with any pranks like the ol’ switch- eroo in the Akron High School classroom. Even a teacher with spit wads stuck to the back of his tweed jacket can tell these brothers apart.
The seniors will chase championships at the 71st state high school wrestling tournament starting today at the Pepsi Center, where the phrase “Go Large” will take on new meaning.
It seems all 1,600 residents of Akron, 115 miles east of Denver, call Brad, Brandon and Brian Goble by their nicknames – Small, Medium and Large. And the handles fit.
“These guys don’t look nothing alike. Don’t ask me why,” said the best source available, Barbara Goble, their mother.
Charlie Goble has proof in his wallet that his sons looked like triplets at one point. A faded picture shows the young boys wearing the same style white shirts, white ties and bowl haircuts.
But it must have been the day after the picture was taken that Brad began to grow up, Brandon grew out and Brian just grew and grew. Nearly 125 pounds and 6 inches now separate Small from Large.
Brad, a.k.a. Small, wrestles at 152 pounds. Brandon, a soft- spoken 215-pounder, is Medium. Brian had to drop pounds to get under the heavyweight limit of 275 pounds. He’s Large.
“When they were born, Large was the little one – 3 pounds, 7 ounces,” Charlie said.
There are other differences.
“Brad is totally the artist,” said Calvin Denbo, a lifelong friend and fellow senior at Akron High. “Brian is the brains, and Brandon is the creative one. They are different in so many ways, but they are a lot alike, too. They can be in different rooms, and you can tell they are brothers by the way they talk.”
The Gobles also have a daughter, Heather, who is nine years older than the triplets.
The Goble brothers have spent a lot of time together. They started their own business, Busy Bs, mowing lawns in the summer and shoveling snow in the winter. They cruised town in the same yellow GMC Jimmy until recently, when they all got their own vehicle, and all three used to work at O’Dell’s Super’s, the local market. They even lined up together as linemen on Akron’s Class 1A runner-up football team.
They got their nicknames as freshmen when a football coach couldn’t keep the “B” names straight.
“The first day of practice they all came up to me and rattled off their names,” assistant coach Mike Kinney said. “I said, ‘Guys, I’m never going to keep those straight. You’re Small, you’re Medium and you’re Large.’ Now the whole school calls them that.
“I knew it stuck during a game when I heard the dad yell, ‘Come on, Large.”‘
That also made it easier for Mom and Dad to know which son was attracting unwanted attention from the coaches.
“You would hear, ‘Medium! Get over here!’ And then you knew who was in trouble,” said Barbara, who was surprised to have three boys for the price of one pregnancy.
The number of triplet births in the U.S. has risen dramatically in the past 25 years, up from about 2,500 in 1990 to a peak of more than 7,000 in 2000, according to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics. Fertility drugs have played a large role in that increase, but Barbara said her triplets were just a “bad joke by God.”
She is proud to have three sons going to the state wrestling tournament together for the first time. Large, who has assumed the role of spokesman over the years, won a match at state last year, and now the Gobles hope the power of three will lead to even better finishes.
The brothers will have their hands full at the state tournament. Small (22-7 this season) is in a bracket that includes Merino’s Ross Brunkardt, a two- time state champion.
Medium (23-9) will have to contend with Nucla’s Tucker Lane, another state champion, and Large (21-7) sits in another loaded bracket.
“I just want to have fun. It’s my first time wrestling there, and it’s a little nerve-wracking. You worry about how you are going to do your senior year,” Small said.
The brothers’ plans after graduation are uncertain, though all three are leaning toward auto body school at Aims Community College in Greeley. It could be a shock for Charlie and Barbara when the house loses about 650 pounds.
“I’m really going to miss it. We’ll have nothing to do,” Charlie said.
