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Redding high school twins offered scholarships after being homeless

<p>Enterprise High School track and field team members Lucas Wright, from left, Clinton Spellman, his borther, Calvin, and Jacob Garrett stretch and warm up Monday during track practice at the school in Redding. </p>

Identical twins Calvin and Clinton Spellman look alike in just about every physical way possible: body type, haircut and both have an ear stud in their left ear.

They can count on two hands the amount of people in Redding who can tell them apart at first glance.

They can often finish each other’s sentences, almost telepathically.

Calvin and Clinton, two seniors on Enterprise High's track and field team, were a part of five first-place finishes at last week's NSCIF Division I championships.

But track and field is more than just a race to the finish for the identical twins.

Track and field provides a welcome distraction for the Spellmans, who navigated a tough and uncertain living situation for months before finding their way to Redding this past December.

“Running track helps us get our mind off it honestly, I love running track, with the coaching staff and stuff they help us, they push us during the hard days and everything,” Clinton said.

Calvin and Clinton lived in Redding as toddlers, then moved to Elk Grove with their father.

They attended Laguna Creek High in Elk Grove. where they were three-sport athletes.

But throughout the past year the relationship between the twins and their father deteriorated and soon, Calvin and Clinton were looking for somewhere else to live in Elk Grove.

They bounced around for a while between friends' houses and their uncle’s place in Elk Grove, reconnected with their mother in Redding after several years out of contact with her, then bounced between their brother's place and another family's house in Redding.

Finally they were taken in, coincidentally, by another set of identical twins who wore the EHS black and yellow, and who went through housing uncertainty as kids: Anthony and James Williams.

“(Anthony) came and told me 'I’m going to take these boys in, I feel like I owe it to them and their father for what he did for me and James,'" EHS track and field coach Jim Deaver said.

Life has somewhat stabilized for the Spellmans, who take pride in the little things such as being able to pay for their own cell phones, and being able to cook a three-course meal.

While they look so alike that it even takes them a moment to recognize each other in photos, there are differences between them both subtle and obvious.

Personality-wise, Clinton says he's the more laid-back of the twins while Calvin says he's a bit more on edge. Calvin says he's the "smart one" and Clinton says he's the more athletic one.

The twins each have identical tattoos on different sides of their chest. The tattoos show a ribbon that has the words "My Brother's Keeper” written on it, words which Calvin and Clinton say have a lot of significance.

Clinton Spellman, from left, and his twin brother, Calvin, get ready to present a project Tuesday during their economics class at Enterprise High School in Redding. Both Clinton and Calvin have excelled at track and field meets this year.

“So all the stuff we’ve been through in our life, we’ve always been by each other’s side, always had his back, always together doing everything,” Clinton said.

“After all of our years he’s the only person I can actually trust and tell everything, so we put my brother’s keeper so we can always look at that and remember we have each other’s back,” Calvin said.

The Spellmans got to EHS just in time for track season and have helped lift the Hornets from a solid team in NSCIF Division I to the team that won last week’s D-I team championship. Now, the Spellmans are receiving scholarship offers and hoping to place in state.

Clinton Spellman won the 100- and 200-meter races last week at Foothill High, posting 11.01 seconds in the 100 and a 22.08-second mark in the 200.

Calvin won the 400-meter race in 50.37 seconds and finished third in the 200 at 22.41 seconds. Both of them run the 4x100 and 4x400 relay races, which the Hornets swept last week.

What: NSCIF Track and Field Championships.

Where: West Valley High School

When: Friday, May 26. Field events are scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Running events are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and go until 9 p.m.

At Stake: Winners of each event will qualify for the CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, California from June 2-3.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr on Twitter @PatrickCarr_RS and on Facebook at Patrick Carr RS. Email him at Patrick.carr@redding.com

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