RAMSEY: Big sister toughened up Air Force's Stewart

Taylor Stewart was in pain. He had suffered a broken fibula. His basketball career at Air Force Academy looked to be over.

He’s a rugged, determined young man, but he struggled for composure last Monday. His lower left leg throbbed, which brought back memories of a fractured wrist as a sophomore and a severe stomach ailment as a junior.

Then a soothing text beeped into his life. It arrived from the maniacal player who defeated him endlessly when he was in grade school.

“I’m really bummed to hear about your ankle,” the message read.

Stewart, even in his pain, smiled as he read the message from his former archnemesis.

The identity of his archnemesis? You’ll be surprised.

His big sister, Elizabeth, had punched the words into her cell phone.

When Stewart plays basketball, he’s not playing. Not really. He’s battling with everything within him. He never relaxes as he attacks the game.

He’s what is known in the game as a "tweener." He lacks the shooting skills to excel as a traditional guard, and he’s too short and slender to serve as a regulation forward.

But he’s survived – and thrived – in the Mountain West by competing with extreme wisdom and hustle. He willed himself into a starting position this season for the Falcons.

Where was this blazing hunger born?

Stewart is sitting at Clune Arena, his still puffy left leg propped on a chair as he listens to the question.

He answers immediately.

“My big sister,” he says.

I’ve been writing about sports for a long time. Asked thousands of questions. Listened to thousands of answers. I have never heard a male athlete credit his success to his sister.

But Elizabeth is not a typical big sister.

She laughs on the phone from Florida as she thinks back to the days when she played hundreds of one-on-one games against little brother.

“I wasn’t like the generous older sister,” Elizabeth says. “I was the competitive sister. I like winning.”

The games started when Taylor was 6 and Elizabeth 10. She was blessed with a height advantage, and she wanted to teach her brother a lesson about adversity.

“He was the baby of the family,” she says. “He got treated, you know, a little better. I considered him babied all the time. I was the older sister who was sort of annoyed by the little brother after she had enjoyed the run of the house.”

At school, Elizabeth listened to taunts from male classmates about her basketball skills. She was a girl, they said, and girls shouldn’t play basketball. These taunts infuriated her, and she relieved the fury by defeating her brother, day after day, year after year.

Taylor and Elizabeth agree on this:

She was a terrible winner. After victories, she shouted and danced while Taylor pouted. She forced him to labor on his outside touch, his spin moves, his dribbling, his ability to drop clutch shots. He kept waiting for the day he could silence big sister.

When he was 9, that day arrived. Elizabeth no longer could stop Taylor’s left-handed drives to the basket. He was too quick and, thanks to her, too competitive to stop.

This inspired Elizabeth to make an astute evaluation of her basketball future.

She ended the one-on-one battles. She declined to admit Taylor had surpassed her. She retired without comment.

This family story has traveled, as family stories often do, to a happy ending. Elizabeth is training in hopes of competing in equestrian in the 2016 Olympics. She declines to mention all her victories from long ago. Instead, she offers constant encouragement to little brother.

Taylor has needed her kind words after suffering mightily during his Air Force career. The curse of injuries is new for him. He never missed a high school game in Kentucky while leading Lexington Catholic to 56 wins and 9 losses in his final two seasons.

But his bad luck might be easing, at least a bit. X-rays this week revealed Stewart’s leg will not require surgery, which means he could return this season.

Coach Jeff Reynolds hopes Stewart will join the Falcons for the Mountain West Tournament on March 8-10. Stewart has a different plan.  He plans to again attack the game in the final days of February.

Don’t bet against this player toughened by his sister.

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