THE THREE SISTERS : They’re Cast From Same Mold, but Don’t Call Them, Well, You Know

Whatever you do, don’t call them The Triplets.

The Creel sisters is just fine. Joy, Leanna and Monica is better. But, never call them The Triplets.

True, they were born within six minutes of each other on Aug. 27, 1970. Yes, physically they look very similar. And yes, they are all involved with the soccer program at Sunny Hills High School, where they are in the their sophomore years.

But do not call them, well, you know. Winston and Catherine Creel, their parents, just call them the girls.

The girls fear The Triplets tag the way natives in a bad jungle movie fear a camera will steal a piece of their soul.

To be , The Triplets, is not to be , Joy or Leanna or Monica.

“I can’t stand it when kids my age call us The Triplets,” Joy said. “It’s the worst. I’m my own person. My sisters are too.”

Granted, there are similarities among them.

They are all athletically gifted. Joy lettered in three sports--cross-country, soccer and track and field--as a freshman. Leanna in two. Monica, some say, may have the most natural ability. She would have lettered in soccer last season but suffered a dislocated knee.

They have all managed to become quite popular with their peers. So much so, that Winston asks whatever you call his daughters, you not do it over the phone.

“I don’t know why I even have the darn thing,” he said. “I never get to use it with them around.”

But, as Catherine said: “Anyone who knows the girls, can tell the differences from them the minute they open their mouths.”

Which is one more skill in which the girls share a proficient talent.

Take for example this machine-gun repartee between Joy and Leanna after they were asked the simple question: What sport do you enjoy more, soccer or track?

Joy: “I like track the best.”

Leanna: “I like track the best, too.”

Joy: “Well, I like soccer, because soccer is fun and . . .”

Leanna: “But soccer is totally different, it’s a team sport that . . .”

Joy: “But track’s great because it was our first year doing it and we . . .”

Leanna: “I mean there are things about track that are . . .”

Joy: “LEANNA! I’M STILL TALKING!”

Leanna: “Oh.”

Joy: “Yeah, but soccer’s fun as a team sport.”

Leanna: “Yeah, soccer’s fun.”

Ten seconds flat. Now, a deep breath. While you’re doing that, let’s listen to Mom’s breakdown of the special needs of each girl.

“Joy needs independence fiercely,” she begins.

Joy is the one sister who has her own room.

“Monica needs adoration.”

When she was a child, Monica’s career aspiration was to be a princess. “Don’t you think that would be a great life?” she asked.

Now, Catherine pauses. She pauses a little too long for Leanna who’s very interested in her mother’s next appraisal.

“Mom . . . what’s my personality?” Leanna asks. “Maawwmm. This is important, what’s my personality?”

Catherine answers: “Leanna needs a lot of time and attention.”

Leanna doesn’t believe this to be an accurate description.

“I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “I think Monica and Joy get much more attention than I do.”

Mother knows best.

“Once you get to know them, you find they are individuals with very distinct personalities and talents,” said Kenn Gordon, Sunny Hills girls’ soccer coach.

On the soccer field those talents are pretty diverse, right now.

Joy is in her second season with the Lancer varsity. The team is in second place in the Freeway League with a 3-1-1 record, 9-5-1 overall. From her center-forward position, Joy has five goals and four assists in 15 games, much of her success stemming from her tremendous speed.

Last spring, she won the Freeway League championship in the 330-yard hurdles, her first track season.

“I basically had no technique,” she said. “I’d run as fast as I could, get to a hurdle, stop, jump over it, then start running again. I won because I was fast.”

Leanna started the soccer season on varsity, where she played last season. But she asked to be switched to the JV team because she thought she’d get more playing time.

Playing various positions, she has played every minute of every game on the JV team. Gordon informed her Monday he was bringing her back to the varsity for the rest of the season. By most accounts, she is the hardest working of the three.

“She puts the most effort into it,” Gordon said. “She’s a real tough kid.”

Monica dislocated her right knee last season in a game against Walnut. After rehabilitating it for about a year, she dislocated the knee again in the first intrasquad scrimmage of this season. For now, she keeps team statistics during games.

“I really felt good,” she said. “We had two months of getting in shape, and then it happened. It’s terrible now. All I can do is yell for the team.”

So, even playing a similar sport, they remain different. Just how different, well, they’re not exactly sure. They do have a feel, however, how others perceive them.

Joy: “Leanna is supposed to be the quiet one. She’s the studious one who is supposed to sit at home. I’m supposed to be the wild one and Monica is supposed to be the airhead.”

Reporter: “Are those accurate descriptions?”

Joy: “Well, Leanna isn’t anymore studious than any of us, and I’m not that wild, I just like to have fun.”

Reporter: “And Monica?”

Joy: “Oh, Monica is a little airhead. If she was here you’d know.”

At the time, Monica was in Palm Springs.

“People get that impression because Leanna is very serious and Joy is really athletic and I sometimes say dumb things,” Monica said.

The fact remains though, that of the three, Monica has received the best grades at Sunny Hills. She remembers the first time it dawned on her that she and her sisters were special.

“I was in grammar school when I realized I was a triplet,” she said. “I was sitting at the dinner table, I looked at my sisters and I said, ‘Hey, I’m a triplet.’ I know it sounds dumb, but I always thought of my two sisters as being older than me.”

It’s not as strange as it sounds. Catherine and Winston refer to Joy as the oldest child because she was born first, Leanna was next, then came Monica.

“When I tell people I have an older sister, they think I’m crazy,” Leanna said. “But I’ve always said I had an older sister and a younger sister. I know it’s only by minutes, but we’ve always treated each other that way.”

Said Catherine: “If you study birth order, it works out. Joy has the personality of many oldest children, the same for Leanna and Monica.”

At about the same time Monica was coming to her “Hey, I’m a triplet” revelation, the girls started playing soccer. They first got involved in the fourth grade when Catherine was informed by a neighbor that soccer was the sport to get your kids into. She entered the girls in the Fullerton Rangers League.

“It’s a social event all over the city,” she said. “You just spend every Saturday at soccer games. My girls all played on the same team, but you got to know these kids from all over, and you would stay to watch them. One would play at eight, one at 11 another one at 1 in the afternoon. You’d spend your whole day there.

“It was fun for me, I was surprised that I enjoyed it. I remember my mother going to my brother’s baseball games. She would go and honk her horn and get all excited, and I thought that was kind of weird. I’m not very competitive. But when your kids are out there you really get into it. I’d come home every Saturday with a sore throat from cheering.”

An easy thing to do when you’re cheering in triplicate . . . oops, make that, cheering for Joy, Leanna and Monica.