Erie – Peter Chandler had no preconceived notion about how his life of professional soccer, marriage and teaching was going to play out.
Good thing for him. Because when his wife, Jeri, gave birth to quintuplets, a household of three became eight and a normal life seemingly flew away with the stork.
A former defender in the North American Soccer League in the late 1970s, Chandler is currently the athletic director and coaches soccer at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette where the quints – Meagan, Josh, Amanda, Emily and Heidi – are juniors.
They play sports. They ace their classes. They are inseparable friends. They dearly miss their older collegiate brother, Zach. They often are the topic of curious conversations wherever they arrive in their 15-passenger van.
Surviving a dangerous passage into this world, watching their mom battle breast cancer and learning to live and love inside a 2,000-square-foot home, the Chandler Five have traveled an extraordinary path.
“It feels like a life of perseverance with lots of fun along the way,” Peter said.
Lots of fun and lots of voices. Ask an obvious question and you get a comparable answer. Ask the obvious question around the Chandler Five and that answer comes in stereo.
“What’s it like?” they mimic after a recent dinner consisting of the house staple – pasta.
The answer is simple. Josh, however, probably has the most practice.
“A lot of people ask me how I feel being the only guy and I tell them ‘Well, I’ve never experienced anything different,”‘ he said.
Duh.
The tie that binds
Gifted in a variety of sports, soccer remains the ultimate life link for the Chandlers. The Peak to Peak roster reads like a typo. Three Chandlers are on the field, and a fourth, Amanda, would be there, too, if she weren’t out for the season with a knee injury. Peter and Josh – when he isn’t running track – are analyzing from the sideline.
“That’s the one sport where we’re all one,” said Meagan, a midfielder. “It’s kind of fun playing with each other because we know each other so well, it’s that much easier to play. Being that we’re almost half the team, it makes the team really come together quickly.”
With Emily in the midfield, Heidi in the attacking role and a healthy Amanda on defense, the Chandlers usually have a hand in all parts of the Peak to Peak production. Aside from skill, the group is tenacious, much like the boys team that Peter guided to the 2005 Class 3A state championship.
Those who think the Chandler girls have guaranteed spots haven’t met Peter, nor do they recall that the girls all made varsity as freshmen under a former coach.
Just recently, Peter’s lineup tinkering led him to bench Emily, a move she – gasp – applauded.
“What motivates me most is encouraging my team, and then that encourages me,” Emily said.
And they excel. Heidi and Amanda have received all-state and all-league honors. As a group, they hope to push Peak to Peak (10-5-1) to new heights in the playoffs beginning today, a prospect that makes some coaches admittedly nervous.
“They’re just players. They’re just footballers,” said Owen Schreffler, coach of rival Colorado Academy. “Most people build their nucleus around four players, and he has them right now.”
“We don’t go by percentages”
Amid the tapestry of photos, postcards and posters in the girls’ two bedrooms is the identical black-and-white picture of a soccer player dribbling past a rather glum opponent. Upon closer inspection, it’s easily one of the best photos in a house crammed with sacred moments.
Skipping nimbly up the field is a much younger Peter Chandler, defender for the Connecticut Bicentennials. The face peeking behind him, and the victim of a clever pass through his own legs, is the indomitable Pele, back when the aging wizard was playing for the New York Cosmos.
Peter’s love of the game easily explains the collage of soccer photos on his daughters’ walls, although there probably are other explanations for all the dreamy poses of David Beckham.
Meagan doesn’t want you to think she’s clichéd, but her father is her hero.
Peter’s wiry, won’t-ever-quit-running frame speaks volumes about the matrix of his family.
After struggling to have a second child, the Chandlers became eligible for in-vitro fertilization.
Six fertilized eggs were used, and doctors told the Chandlers they had a 17 percent chance of having a baby. They hit the jackpot. That feeling never wavered, even when the kids were born nine weeks premature and plucked from Jeri in a span of two minutes in a delivery room with 36 medical attendants.
Two of the girls got very sick, but considering the odds, the high-risk process went very smoothly.
Jeri has had her own set of numbers since she was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks after the quintuplets began kindergarten. After nine months of chemotherapy, five weeks of radiation and a mastectomy, she became a survivor, knowing that every healthy day diminishes her 40 percent chance of a reoccurrence.
“We don’t go by percentages,” Jeri says stoically.
Five different directions
Just weeks away from planning a fivefold 18th birthday party, Jeri knows she has one year left of watching her kids pick apart defenses or race around the track. Then, who knows?
“It’s supersonic,” she said. “It’s too fast. And I can remember reminding myself when they were really tiny not to wish myself out of the current stage … now they’re gone, at least that physical dependency.”
Meagan wants to go to Africa and offer medical assistance to those in need. Josh is considering the Coast Guard. Amanda might try for a degree in physical therapy. Emily is considering the ROTC. Heidi ponders attending the Naval Academy or doing some missionary work.
Although they expect to scatter to the four corners of the globe, they seem bound by a unifying sense of purpose: They want to help.
“I really want to be involved in stopping a part of some violence in the world,” Heidi says.
Homesickness is expected, but a part of each of them is looking forward to being pulled apart.
“It will be cool to be one of one and not one of five,” Meagan said.
Says Amanda: “I’ve never not gone to school with them. It’s going to be a different world.”
Odds are it will be nothing like they’ve anticipated or planned. It could, however, be much better. Just like the lives of their parents.
“It’s been a great life,” Peter said.
Chandler quintuplets
The Chandler quintuplets were delivered in the span of two minutes via Caesarean birth on May 20, 1989. Currently juniors at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, they are best friends and teammates. Freelance high school reporter Brian Forbes looks at what makes each of them unique, from their likes to their favorite color, which coincides with the blanket each was given as a baby. The Chandler Five, from oldest to youngest:
MEAGAN
Favorite color: Green
Tastes: Pesto tortellini; swims and plays volleyball; is scared of picking the wrong college; wants to work in the medical field, preferably in Africa.
Mom’s take: “She’s light-hearted and kind of the court jester.”
What you don’t know: Relatively speaking, she was the chubbiest baby and got called “Beefcake.”
JOSH
Favorite color: Blue
Tastes: Favorite band is Five for Fighting; loves Mom’s Chinese food; usually dates his sister’s friends; enjoys having his own room.
Mom’s take: “He’s sensitive to others. Josh is going to make an amazing husband. He understands what it takes.”
What you don’t know: While chasing Heidi, he became the first to fall and break a bone.
AMANDA
Favorite color: Purple
Tastes: Chinese food; drawing; afraid of spiders, snakes and alligators; plays softball and runs track; good with hair; wants to pursue a degree in physical therapy.
Mom’s take: “She’s very outgoing in social situations.”
What you don’t know: She gets her brown hair and olive skin from her Portuguese grandmother.
EMILY
Favorite color: Pink
Tastes: Christian rock music; history and biology; very neat; runs cross country; wants to join the ROTC.
Mom’s take: “She’s quiet and introspective, unless she’s playing soccer.”
What you don’t know: She got the first speeding ticket.
HEIDI
Favorite color: Yellow
Tastes: Macaroni and cheese; plays basketball and volleyball; wants to join either the ROTC or the Naval Academy and maybe do some missionary work.
Mom’s take: “She’s a leader. She has a heart for helping.”
What you don’t know: She wants to skydive with Meagan.
Quintuplets/Facts
Five facts about quintuplets:
* In 2003 there were 85 births in the U.S. of quintuplets or more, compared with 136,328 births involving twins.
* The first quints to survive in the U.S. were born in 1963.
* The first in-vitro quints in the U.S. were born in 1988.
* Before the advent of fertility methods, the odds of having quintuplets were estimated at 1 in 65 million live births.
* It’s estimated 99 percent of quintuplets are the result of fertility treatments.
