By snoadmin
Under the shade of her MIT ball cap, Cheryl Tucker watched both her sons, LBSU attacker Reid and MIT driver Grant Tomassi, compete on opposite teams as Long Beach State dominated MIT 9-5 at the men’s water polo match Sunday afternoon.
With sun blazing down on her, she looked like a true Engineer fan, sporting her maroon and gray and sitting in the MIT bleachers.
“But I’m wearing a 49ers necklace,” she said while squinting through her sunglasses. “So it all evens out. I’m rooting for both of them.”
Tucker, the proud mother of two athletic scholars living on opposite ends of the country, came all the way from Winter Park, Fla., to see Reid and Grant compete at the 49er Campus Pool.
“I’ve known about this game for a long time,” Tucker said. “Grant was recruited on the grounds that he may some day get to play his brother. I bought my plane tickets months ago because there was just no way I could miss this.”
Reid, a 22-year old senior majoring in finance real estate law, is a towering 6-foot-6 and a force in the water. A quick driver with a strong field sense, he judges the game two steps ahead of most players.
He came to LBSU, he said, because Southern California is famous for water polo. Now, in his final season, he’s one of the team’s strongest players.
In his senior season, Reid is the second-highest scorer on the 49ers, with 25 goals scored in 15 games.
Reid made an immediate impact on the 49ers the minute he arrived in California.
Coming out of his Florida high school as a two-time All-American, Reid continued his success on the other side of the country, scoring 51 goals his senior season, finishing second on the team.
He followed up his freshman campaign by finishing second on the squad in goals again with 41, and garnering all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors.
Reid, who graduated with a 4.0 GPA in high school, also earned All-Academic accolades in 2004 and 2005.
“He’s a brilliant, dedicated guy with a big heart,” said Magen Grove, his girlfriend of two and half years.
Grove also mentioned that she does her best to attend every one of Reid’s games and that this one was especially entertaining because his little brother was there.
But the two almost didn’t get to play against each other. If it weren’t for Reid becoming injured in 2006 and being forced to take a medical redshirt, he would have been out of eligibility this year and unable to play against his little brother.
That’ little brother is Grant, whom his mother described as “really competitive when it comes to Reid.” Grant is a freshmen mechanical engineering major at MIT. At 18, he’s following suit of Reid as a solid driver and smart player.
For the four years and 5 inches of difference, the two brothers are certainly a lot alike.
“It used to be Reid’s size that would let him rough-up Grant,” Tucker laughed, “but now, there’s not much keeping Grant from fighting back. He’s 6-foot-1 and he’s always picking fights with Reid.”
Their mom said Reid and Grant are known in their hometown as “pranksters” – the kind of siblings who get a long a little too well, well enough to plot firework displays in unsuspecting neighbors’ lawns and cause a big commotion.
In high school, both were young scholars, taking college level courses at Central Florida. They were both star pitchers with an affinity for throwing fastballs. And both boys love racquetball for its intense, one-on-one nature.
The brothers said they were glad to see their mom and rest of their family Sunday, who all flew from the Sunshine State to be at the game. The brothers said they’ve missed their family and their mom’s home cooking the most since they’ve been away at school.
