When Eupora basketball coach Danya Turner, a pastor in Winston County, decided to take a full-time job with the Winston County School district, he brought his two sons with him.
He also likely helped deliver the school’s first state championship in football with the addition of twins Donovan and Devean Turner to the Warriors’ roster. The Turner twins are the last players in the Winston County Journal’s Top 11 players to Watch for the upcoming football season.
The twins had a monster season for the Warriors, delivering more than 2,900 yards of total offense and combined 38 touchdowns.
Head coach James Courtney, who coached the pair at Eupora before coming to Nanih Waiya, knows what kind of impact the pair had.
“It was a Godsend when they moved in,” Courtney said. “In my coaching career, I’ve had three kids who have moved in who were really good kids. They are two of them and the third one moved back in a month. You don’t get many who move in that can help and that can play like those guys. They helped us win a state championship.”
Donovan, who is 6-foot and 218 pounds, is the quarterback of the two and the oldest by three minutes. Last year, he threw for 718 yards on 47-of-94 attempts with 10 touchdowns and three interceptions. He rushed for 1,540 yards on 163 carries with 18 TDs.
“Donovan could play several positions in college,” Courtney said. “I think he’s good enough to play quarterback if you were in a system where you are going to use him to run and throw. We don’t use him to throw the football as much to showcase how good he can throw because he is a good thrower. I think he could play outside linebacker. He doesn’t play much defense for us. Or he could play safety because he can run and he’s physical. He is going to play more safety for us this year but I think he could play two or three positions in college.”
Devean is the youngest of the two but comes in at 6-foot-1 and 231 pounds, slightly bigger than his older brother. He’s also the scholar of the group with a 3.8 GPA and a 21 on the ACT. He’s received interest from Air Force.
“Devean is definitely a fullback,” Courtney said. “He has great hands. He is a great blocker, He is physical and he is smart. The way people use H-backs these days, that’s definitely where he needs to play. If Devean gets that offer from Air Force, that would be hard to turn down because it’s so good academically. Them going together and doing everything together, it has to be the right place where they need both of those type of players.”
Both Turners agreed that they want to go to college together. They both have offers from East Central, Coahoma and Holmes along with Jackson State.
When asked what he tells college coaches when they inquire about the twins, one word came to mind quickly.
“First thing about those two are they are reliable,” Courtney said. “They are great kids from a great family. If you are recruiting them, you can count on them. You don’t have to worry about them getting there and getting in trouble or quitting on you because they are reliable young men.”
Like most twins, Turner said they are alike in ways but are different as well.
“They are really opposites as far as their personality is concerned,” Courtney said. “Devean is serious and laid back and very intense. Donovan is high strung and a little goofy. They are both great kids but they are different. So God made them especially perfect so they could survive together. Right now, Donovan is probably the better offensive player but Devean is a really good defensive player. They are just talented kids.”
The twins agree that they compete at just about everything they do, from video games to basketball and even in the classroom.
“I wouldn’t say that everything is a competition but everybody likes to compare you and put you together and say that one is better than the other one,” Devean said. “We just stick to doing what we know we can do as individuals. But we will go out in the yard and play some basketball and it gets pretty intense.”
Devean said their childhood was a typical one of brothers and as small children, they often caused havoc while playing Power Rangers.
“Donovan was the one would would get in trouble and he would drag me into it and we would both get into trouble,” Devean said. “That’s how it was. We didn’t get into a lot of stuff. We would break stuff when we were little because we used to watch Power Rangers and thought we were going to grow up being Power Rangers so we would play that all the time. We would end up breaking picture frames. We would wrestle or fight, just typical boys stuff.”
But nothing is typical about what Nanih Waiya’s dynamic duo does on Friday nights. Far from it.
