Karsen Simon (left), Parker Simon (right)
Karsen Simon took the mound in Cando Post 79’s regular season finale last Wednesday. The big, gruff right-hander, with his long hair, moderately-sized beard and light mustache, pumped lively fastballs beyond Rugby Post 23’s bats for three innings.
For the next four innings, if one were to take just a quick glance, they might have thought Simon was still pitching. No, that wasn’t Simon — at least not Karsen Simon. Yes, he had roughly the same build, haircut, beard and fastball, but that was Parker Simon, Karsen’s identical twin brother.
“He’s got a mole on his face,” Parker said, “so that’s how we always tell the difference. We’ve been telling other teams this year that we’re just cousins. That kind of throws them off a little bit.”
From growing up on a farm in Hampden, to a decorated career playing multiple sports for North Star Public School and the town of Cando, the Simons have made a name for themselves in one of North Dakota’s more isolated regions. Despite spending roughly 98% of their lives together, by Karsen’s estimate, they’ve always gotten along pretty well.
They have one family member who, these days, calls them “Preppy Parker” and “Country Karsen” as a method of distinction.
“I always dress in my blue-collar attire, and [Parker] dresses in his West Coast, East Coast; he dresses in the shorts and flip flops. And that’s kind of how they’ve been telling us apart now,” Karsen said. “But we have the same haircut and the same beard. And we’re kind of the same weight again. It’s been all over the board; sometimes he’s heavier than I am, and then sometimes he’s growing out his facial hair or I’m not. It’s just kind of been back and forth. But now we look pretty alike, so it throws some people off.”
As high school graduates now, the phase of their lives with competitive athletics is nearing an end. Their North Star careers are already over. They still have a year of Legion baseball eligibility, so they’ll be back for one final ride with Cando next summer. But in between, they’ll both be starting their college journeys.
For the first time ever, they’ll each be living in a place other than Hampden, a tiny town that had a population of 29 in the 2020 census.
“It’s sad,” Parker said. “But the younger kids, they’ve got the reins now.”
Karsen added, “It’s gonna be tough on our parents, especially since they lose us both at the same time. We don’t have any brothers or anything. It’ll be bittersweet.”
The Simons’ first memories stem back to the farm that they’ve lived their whole lives on. From an early age, it gave them a taste of what work will be like in the future, and instilled a sense of responsibility in them.
“Growing up on the farm, especially, it matures you a little bit,” Karsen said.
Across the road from the Simon farm lives Garrett Westlind, the starting catcher for North Star and Cando. He’s part of what Cando head coach Jesse Vote keeps referring to as a “special group of seniors,” which also includes Zach Jorde, Chas Bisbee and Jamestown baseball commit Dane Hagler.
“We’ve been a family for so long, and now we’re all going our separate places,” Karsen said. “Just trying to get the last moments in before we’re all away.”
The Simons weren’t immediately thrown into the sporting world, though, the way that a lot of kids are. Their hometown of Hampden is a solid 30-minute drive away from Cando. When they were young kids, most of what they did for fun just involved playing on the farm.
The first sport they remember playing was T-ball. But at that point, it wasn’t much of a serious venture.
“It was a grand old time,” Parker said. “Back in the T-ball days, me and [Karsen] were usually the ones standing in the outfield playing tractors instead of watching baseball.”
They first came to Cando for a basketball camp in fourth grade. It was then, Parker said, that they “truly fell in love with sports here.” By fifth grade, they were playing for Cando teams.
The Simons weren’t superstars right away, though. Karsen said they weren’t naturally athletic at that age, and they also weren’t used to how seriously Cando takes its sports. They had to get accustomed to a new environment of competition.
“Parker and I used to be probably the worst two baseball players, basketball and football players, on every team. We were just awful,” Karsen said. “But they just brought us in like a family, and we built a bond.”
Karsen added, for emphasis, “When I say awful, we were awful.”
But they got better. They put in work every day, whether it was at practice or on the weekends. And it got them to the point they’re at today, where they’re typically the biggest and strongest kids on any given court or field. The Simons’ physical ability reflects how they’ve taken advantage of what playing for Cando has offered them.
“You only get these opportunities once, and then it’s gonna be all over with,” Karsen said. “So you might as well give your 110% now, instead of having these regrets later when you’re old and sitting around the coffee table at Cenex with all the guys. You don’t want to be like, ‘I wish I would have did this, and I wish we did that.’”
A linchpin in their progression is the coach who’s been at their side all these years: Jesse Vote. From coaching them in basketball, to spring baseball, to summer baseball, Vote has been their leader.
“He’s a great coach,” Parker said. “I mean, he gets after us a little bit. Sometimes we’re joking around. But it’s always positive around him. When things get low, you can always trust and lean on him for some advice or anything. He’s just always been there.”
Vote has been pushing the Simons to improve ever since they started playing for Cando in fifth grade. They’ve been through triumph and heartbreak together, leading numerous successful basketball and baseball teams while also falling just short of their ultimate goal at times.
But Vote has helped them maintain a perspective and maturity through it all.
“He’s developed us into pretty good men, I think,” Karsen said.
Outside of sports, Parker and Karsen let loose by fishing a lot, whether it’s in the summer or ice fishing in the winter. They also like to play video games when they can. Karsen has been working both on the farm and in an elevator already, preparing for his life beyond sports.
Ultimately, though, both of them said that what they enjoy most is spending time with their friends and teammates. It’s what’s motivated them to keep playing football, basketball and two baseball seasons every year.
For Parker, this past football season was one of the most fun seasons he’s ever had, he said. That was despite losing in the first round of the playoffs. Then came the basketball season, where North Star absolutely dominated the competition. The Bearcats only lost one game during the entire regular season, and were undefeated in region and district play. They entered the playoffs ranked No. 1 in all of Class B.
They stormed through the district and region tournaments before losing in the state championship game.
“We knew we had a great shot. We had an absolutely tremendous year,” Parker said. “And just going into the gym with those fellas every single day, and then coming back out here and playing baseball in 90-degree weather with all of them, it’s just awesome.”
That’s the thing about playing for Cando: It’s largely the same group of kids across multiple sports. Once their season comes to an end in one sport, they get to go right back out and try again in another sport. It’s a grind, for sure — one that leaves little time for much of an offseason, but allows them to grow and bond with each other in the process.
“Our coaches make it fun,” Karsen said. “I mean, we have our times where we’re working our butts off 100%, and then we have times where we’re just joking around with each other. And it’s kind of like we have that happy medium, and we know that line when ‘Hey, we need to get to work,’ and ‘Hey, we can screw around.’ We’ve never just been pushed so hard to ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this.’”
Now, it’s time for the next step. Parker is committed to play baseball not terribly far from Hampden, down in Devils Lake at Lake Region State College. He said he considered trying to pursue football at the next level, but he knew some of the incoming players on the LRSC baseball team and figured it would be a natural fit.
“I just thought it’d be a blast,” Parker said. “And I’ll be close to the farm, too, and help my dad during the fall for harvest. So that played a big role in it as well.”
Karsen, meanwhile, will be attending North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, working towards a Precision Agriculture Technician degree.
Originally, Karsen had committed to play baseball at the University of Minnesota Crookston, a four-year, Division II school. But he decided to decommit.
“I just thought going to a two-year right now is probably the smartest decision for me, and just see how I like it,” Karsen said. “School is not a huge thing to me, but obviously I want to learn and develop my knowledge and put it into the workforce — and hopefully farm some acres one day and be able to live on my own.”
He was briefly in touch with the baseball coach at NDSCS, which plays in the same conference as LRSC. But nothing ever came of it.
Whatever the future has in store for the Simons, they’ll always be two of this senior class’s most distinctive representatives. And that’s how they want to be remembered.
“I want the younger kids to look at us: ‘They were two big, goofy dudes. But they were respectable.’ You don’t want people to be like, ‘Oh, we can screw around, around them,’” Karsen said. “I don’t want to come across as a piece of garbage. I want to come across as mature, and I hope people look up to us. Like, ‘Hey, he goes to work, and then comes here and goes to baseball. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got his priorities set straight. And he’s making a life for himself.’ Because at the end of the day, that’s what matters, and you just gotta be happy.”
Parker and Karsen won’t be on next year’s North Star teams. Neither will Hagler, or Westlind, or Jorde, or Bisbee. It’s up to the underclassmen to step up and try to recreate what the Simons helped build.
“I hope those younger kids aren’t off here screwing around,” Karsen said. “Nowadays — I can’t even say this generation, because I’m a part of this generation — kids just like to screw around and play video games. They’re just kind of losing the feel of everything. I hope they grow up to be a family just like we were.”
Parker added, “They’ve got some big shoes to fill, especially after a huge senior class leaving. I hope that they did look up to us, and hope that we left a good mark on Cando, and North Star as a school as well.”
They’ll be remembered, for sure. And they’ve come a long way. From their early days on the farm in Hampden, and being some of the worst and disinterested players on their T-ball team, they’re already gearing up for college sports, academics and a career beyond schooling.
“They’ve just been workhorses for us. They show up every day, just ready to compete,” Coach Vote said. “They’ll be missed all around the school, and all the sports that they compete in, especially on the baseball field.”
