Josh Bootzin is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cesar Chavez High School for AZPreps365.com.

Elizabeth (Liz) and Isabella (Bella) Hermosillo are seniors at Cesar Chavez High School and stars of the varsity volleyball team. With an older brother in professional baseball and a father in the Chavez Booster Club - a voluntary organization for parents that helps raise money for school sports - Liz and Bella have been surrounded by sports their entire lives. 

Their shared passion for sports and competition has bonded the sisters since childhood despite otherwise distinct personalities. This connection is all the more important given the lack of space and individuality that comes from a four-minute age difference and sharing a bedroom through high school. 

Liz and Bella began their volleyball careers as fourth graders and have played every year since.

“The adrenaline,” Liz said, describing why she loves volleyball. “When you’re winning and you just keep scoring points and points, and the cheers, especially from your teammates right after that play, it’s just a good feeling.”

The first school the twins attended after moving to the Phoenix area was a small charter school. They could have stayed at that school through high school, but they and their friends decided that their personalities were better suited for a larger public school where they would have room to breathe, expand, and prosper.

Many of the girls making up Chavez’ varsity volleyball team transferred with the Hermosillos and remain friends to this day.

“We’re really close with our team,” Bella said. “Because we have 11 girls that are seniors, and we’ve been together forever. Half the girls we’ve been with since sixth grade.”

Liz and Bella have a knack for surrounding themselves with like-minded people.

“I don’t think I have one real friend that’s super close to me that doesn’t play sports,” Liz said. “It’s just like surrounding yourself with people who are in the same situation as you, always on their best behavior, good grades, just athletes who know what they need to get done.”

The volleyball team is not just a school-affiliated extracurricular for these girls. It’s a community of friends who support each other and a place where they can be themselves – a perfect outlet for Liz and Bella, who prefer to be known as Liz and Bella, not “the twins”.

Once you get to know them, the dissimilarities between their personalities become more and more apparent. 

Bella, who plays catcher for Chavez softball in the spring, excels at math and has dreams of taking her talents to a big city like New York or Chicago. She is the more social of the two, preferring hanging out with friends to relaxing at home. Bella is also the more responsible twin, taking charge when someone needs to step in.

And Liz is more than OK with letting Bella be the responsible one. Liz is a social butterfly when she wants to be, but she falls prey to the prospect of relaxing at home with a good book. As opposed to Bella’s knack for math, Liz’ best subject is English. She aspires to be an editor in the publishing industry one day, and is looking at colleges much closer to home. 

Liz also aspires to continue playing volleyball in college. She loves watching film and keeping track of her team’s stats.

Despite the future looking like diverging paths for Liz and Bella, their parents praise volleyball for what it’s done to keep them together and help them grow together.

“The sisterly ‘I’m there to protect you’ type thing, you know,” Gilbert Hermosillo, the twins’ father, said. “I’m your teammate on top of your sister, and I’ve got your back.”

“They’ve pretty much done everything together their entire life, including sports, and it’s kept them together, it’s kept them strong,” Krysta Hermosillo, their mother, said. “It’s helped them keep their straight A’s, it’s kept them where they need to be by being good sisters and playing together.”

On top of sports and social lives and hobbies, Liz and Bella’s parents are most proud of them for their performance in school. Both twins are top 30 in their class.

“First, more than anything, they’re student-athletes,” Gilbert said. “They’re students. They both have exceptional grades.”

Once they started high school, Liz and Bella saw less of each other during the days, choosing different electives that better suited their skills and personalities. Somehow, everything came full circle and they have practically the same schedule for their senior year.

One might expect to get tired of another person if they had to wake up in the same room, play for the same team, and take the same classes as them, but Liz and Bella don’t mind.

“It’s nice because we can rely on each other,” Bella said.

Eureka Hall, Chavez varsity volleyball’s head coach, couldn’t have more praise for Liz and Bella’s leadership, intelligence, and work ethic.

“In life, I just feel like these girls are 10 steps ahead,” Hall said. “It’s going to benefit them in the real world because they’re smart. They know how to figure things out quicker than everybody else.”

At this point, neither Liz nor Bella have decided where they will be attending college next year or what they will be studying. 

Neither plan on following their brother, Michael, into a professional sports career, making this last year of high school sports all the more important for them. 

Two things are certain regarding the Hermosillo twins: they know how to surround themselves with good, competitive people that will push them to achieve their full potential, and they absolutely know how to compete.