Opportunity at CGA keeps twins together
Wicke brothers leave California and become captains in two sports
New London — Although they're twins, Mark and Arthur Wicke have spent more time together in the four years they've attended the Coast Guard Academy than they did growing up 2,900 miles away in San Marino, Calif.
So it only makes sense that they applied to the academy at different times.
Arthur, now the senior captain of the Coast Guard men's tennis team, sent his application for Early Action consideration. Mark, also considering West Point and the Air Force Academy, mailed his somewhat later.
"I got my application in the last hour, the last day," said Mark Wicke, one of three Coast Guard football senior captains.
"I remember when I met you in the spring," Wicke said, then addressing head football coach Bill George, sitting across the table from him at this week's Coast Guard foot
ball luncheon. "It was Coast Guard vs. West Point vs. Air Force and I brought up I had a brother going to Coast Guard. You told me how when you were at Ithaca, your brother (Dan) went to Cornell and how one of your favorite parts was having your brother close to you. You told me 'you have to be out of your mind not to go to college with your brother.'"
Mark, listed at 6 feet, 200 pounds, is the strong safety for the football team, which is 4-2 overall, 1-2 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference headed into Saturday's league game at Maine Maritime (0-6, 0-3).
He is tied for fourth on the team with 41 tackles and has two tackles for a loss, five pass breakups and a forced fumble. The Bears' defense is allowing just 16.3 points per game, holding NEWMAC preseason favorite Springfield scoreless in the second half of last Saturday's narrow loss. Coast Guard leads the league with 12 takeaways: seven interceptions and five fumbles.
"A fantastic job, an unbelievable job," George said of Wicke and this season's captains, who succeeded last year's leadership of Jack Brandt and Chip Crowley. "It's hard to be a good captain after you follow a group of captains like that. My credit to this year's seniors. That's what wins the close games; it's not the plays, it's the leadership."
Mark also enjoys talking about his brother. The two played different sports growing up, but both earned the distinguished Boy Scout rank of Eagle Scout. Through scouting, the Wickes made a 12-day, 100-mile backpacking journey through New Mexico and camped in the Florida Keys, hooking a 10-15-foot hammerhead shark while deep sea fishing.
Mark described attending the U.S. Open tennis tournament with Arthur in New York and ending up on all the side courts, watching the unranked players, as opposed to the more glamorous show courts.
"Arthur is right-handed and he injured his right arm, so he plays left-handed," Mark said. "... Arthur knows every single player on every single court. Even though I don't really play tennis, I get to (appreciate it) through Arthur."
"I like tennis a lot," Arthur said. "It's a lifetime sport. You can play it the rest of your life. Tennis can be a lonely sport. You have to pump yourself up."
Arthur, listed at 5-11, 155 pounds, plays second singles and second doubles at Coast Guard. At San Marino, where he played mainly doubles on a team laden with Division I recruits, the Titans were two-time California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division 2 champions. His favorite player is fellow lefty Rafael Nadal.
Mark, who played wide receiver, quarterback, fullback, middle linebacker and everywhere in the secondary in high school at some point, was an All-Rio Hondo League, All-Area and All-CIF selection as a senior, helping lead the football team to the state small schools championship game.
Mark, a member of Coast Guard's Echo company, is mechanical engineering major. Arthur, in Alpha company, is majoring in civil engineering. The two have both been chosen to the NEWMAC All-Academic Team.
Their younger brother, Chris, is a freshman linebacker at Division III Claremont (Calif.) McKenna College, where he has already recorded his first sack.
"I think it was the right choice," Arthur Wicke said of choosing Coast Guard. "It's definitely a very challenging place. My dad kind of talked us into it. He always regretted not going to a service academy when he was younger." v.fulkerson@theday.com