Bay Port’s Trast twins are double trouble for defenses

The Bay Port offensive line could be mistaken for a brick wall this season with how well its playing.

Opposing defenses are finding it particularly difficult to get past the right side of it.

That’s because the bond Owen and Eli Trast have is simply too tough to break.

“Those two twins are fantastic,” Bay Port senior center Ben Rathburn said. “That’s double trouble when you got two Trast brothers going at it. It makes my job so much easier. Those guys are absolute tanks on that right side.”

The undefeated Pirates are averaging 55.2 points per game heading into their Fox River Classic Conference clash at undefeated Green Bay Notre Dame.

The Trast twins have played a big part in that production.

Owen, who is a 6-foot-3, 225-pounder that likes to point out he’s the “older” twin by 26 minutes, is a second-year starter and made the transition from left to right tackle this year.

Eli, who is the younger but definitely not smaller brother, was Bay Port’s most improved player in preseason practices and is enjoying a dominating year as a 6-foot-3, 275-pound bulldozer at right guard.

“They’re really good kids,” Bay Port coach Gary Westerman said. “They’re really smart football players. They’re both really good, but Eli has just made an enormous jump from his junior to his senior year.

“He’s having about as a good a year for an offensive lineman that we’ve ever had. He’s not going to garner the recognition that a Cole Van Lanen does, but he is absolutely destroying people week in and week out. It’s really fun, and I don’t know necessarily that I saw it coming.”

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The Trast twins are continuing a strong tradition of linemen for Bay Port, which has featured the FRCC’s offensive lineman of the year the previous four years.

That included Van Lanen in 2014 and 2015. The Trast brothers know the University of Wisconsin sophomore lineman quite well since he is dating their older sister, Gretchen.

The Trast twins said the biggest thing they picked up from Van Lanen was his work ethic.

“He showed us that working hard in the weight room pays off because he works really hard in the weight room,” said Eli, who made the switch from tackle to guard last year.

Eli’s transition to guard gave the twin brothers the unexpected to opportunity to play right next to each other as seniors.

“Our chemistry really pays off,” said Owen, who is No. 67. “Two years ago, the same thing happened with Keegan Lardinois and Cole where they just put two tackles on the same side and just run power. I think that’s what they did this year and it really works out well.”

The Trast twins feel they probably frustrate at times fellow linemen Max Salscheider, Matt Rotter and Rathburn along with tight end Jack Plumb with their jokes that nobody else seems to get.

Still, Eli and Owen don’t always see everything the same way despite their many similarities.

The exchange below embodies that.

“I would say were alike a lot,” Owen said.

Eli added, “Yeah, but he calls the shots most of the time.”

“I’m smarter than him,” Owen said.

Eli responded, “And I beat him up at home. I have a harder jab with the right shoulder.”

The Trast twins both aspire to become engineers, like their father.

When they weren’t beating each other up playing football in the yard as kids, Eli and Owen remember spending countless hours playing with LEGOs.

“We had a lot of LEGOs,” said Eli, who is No. 66. “Our grandma would just buy us a bin of LEGOs. We have a whole downstairs and a whole shelf of just LEGO cars. They’re all in a box. We will not take them apart.”

The Trast twins know they’ll likely be going their separate ways after high school, though. Owen hopes to join the U.S. Naval Academy, while Eli is looking to attend UW-Madison or UW-Platteville.

They’re going to make the most of their senior year together as both plan to go out for wrestling.

Right now, the Trast twins are having fun playing their part in engineering long drives and keeping the offense running at a fast pace.

“We have a lot of different things we can excel at,” Owen said. “Cordell (Tinch) we can throw the ball to. Isaac (Krause) can just air it out, and JC (Jacob Calawerts) is really good at running the ball. It’s tough to stop.”

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