Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: What is it like being on the same team as your sister?
Zarreen: It’s pretty fun. It’s also comforting because she is like my second half. Her being around all the time … it’s just comforting because we’ve always been together all the time. Everything we’ve done in our life, we’ve always done it together. So, just to be around someone who is basically your second half, it’s just really comforting.
Q: Yeah, Are you guys’ twins or part of a larger set?
Both: We’re twins.
Q: Why did you both make the decision to come to UAlbany? Was competing together part of the decision or just a coincidence?
Zareena: We’ve always been together no matter what and we had other schools reach out to us, different schools. We couldn’t say no to UAlbany because we’ve been here so many times on visits and we always felt like it was home with the teammates and with different people walking around. We just chose UAlbany for that.
Zarreen: Yeah. And I also think … we also did want to go to school together. That was non-negotiable. Even though different schools reached out to us - maybe one school reached out to her, and another school didn’t reach out to me, but we always made it clear that we wanted to be together.
Q: Nice! How has your first season been so far?
Zarreen: It’s been pretty good. It’s been really fun, especially during the fall. I learned a lot during the fall - getting myself on my feet and stuff like that. And a new setting, bigger setting, college setting … so it’s been really fun, and I just really like learning about new things and being here for a season has been really like interesting to me.
Q: Have you always competed on the same teams?
Zarreen: Yes.
Zareena: For the most part, yeah. Only if we’re like scrimmaging against each other, and the coach is like “You guys can’t be together. You guys have to go on separate teams.” *laughter* Other than that, we’re always competing together.
Zarreen: Club, we’ve always been on the same team.
Q: And, what was it like growing up spending that amount of time with one person - someone who you went to practice with, you went to school with, you went home with, someone you did pretty much everything with? What is that like?
Zareena: I don’t know because I don’t really think about it unless people ask me … I think it’s just normal. You have another friend around, another best friend around. You’re together all the time so …
Zarreen: Yeah, it’s like the person who you go to when you have problems or you just want to be around. It’s just natural to us.
Q: So, you’re telling me you don’t get into any fights?
Zareena: I didn’t say that. We get into it here and there …
Zarreen: Yeah.
Zareena: … but it’s not like … you know, it’s a sister thing.
Zarreen: Yeah, we get into a fight and then like we’re like okay, it never happened and then just keep going on with our lives.
Q: Thank you!
For more content from the Women's History Month #GreatWomenGreatDanes series, click here.
