Twins Caleb and Riley Stewart have shared the basketball court at Dalhousie University since last season, while their older brother Micah plays for their cross-town rival at Saint Mary’s University.
“It’s awesome,” Micah said about the matchup. “I always get TC Sports Media to take a photo of all three of us, for the memories.”
Last season on the biggest stage in the AUS Championship semifinal, in front of a packed home crowd at Scotiabank Centre, the brothers watched from the sidelines as the Tigers ended SMU’s season.
Dalhousie went on to win the whole championship in a nail biting overtime win which saw Caleb make it out onto the floor and drain a field goal while adding an offensive rebound. Micah cheered on his brothers in what he called a bittersweet moment.
“It’s totally mixed emotions,” Micah said. “I was really happy to see them succeed on the court, but the SMU player side of me, I was devastated.”
Riley said that it was “cool” to be able to get the upper hand on the bigger brother and so far the twins have gotten the best of the Huskies and Micah. Dalhousie has won four of the six games against Saint Mary’s since Riley and Caleb have been on the team.
Before Halifax
The Stewart brothers are all from the small town of Stevensville, Ont. where Caleb and Riley, identical twins, have always played basketball together.
Both brothers grew to be 6-6 wings who brought the ball up the court and could defend at the same time. The twins tore up tournaments in Ontario for the Supreme Hoops Canada East Basketball Club and were on the list of 145 nominated players for the BioSteel All-Canadian Basketball game.
Caleb said his coach at Supreme Hoops thought the twins have a special connection, recognizing each others’ tendencies and where the other is on the court.
“It’s just fun,” Caleb said.
During their search for university basketball, the twins decided they were going to continue to play together.
“Dalhousie was the main school, where we both could play and we both had our programs,” Riley said. “So it was kind of the go to decision for both of us.”
The Stewart brothers committed to Dalhousie University in January 2023.
During his senior year of high school, Micah’s basketball season was cut short due to COVID-19 and he decided to attend Brock University for Sports Management. He continued to play basketball on the side but did not play varsity. Supreme Hoops, which the twins were playing, at the time allowed older players to join during the summer, so Micah did.
Around the time of Riley and Caleb announcing they were headed to Dal, Micah started to send around his basketball tape to universities across the country.
“What I was sending out to coaches was that I wanted to bet on myself,” Micah said. “Give me one year, you don’t have to give me any money, just tell me I’m on the team. After one year if you want to keep me, keep me. If you don’t, you don’t.”
He had also been looking for a school which had sports management, so he was deciding between Mount Royal University and Laurentian University. He had a connection who told him about Saint Mary’s and switching to business, but had no idea it was down the street from Dal.
“So then we googled it, and we were like no way,” Micah said.
Now in his second year at Saint Mary’s, Micah earned a scholarship and has been roommates with the twins since they came to Halifax. Micah called it a grind to make the team and even harder to work yourself up through the team.
“I’m still trying to work my way up, just proving to coaches that I belong here. I want to be one of the hardest working guys on the team, and I want to lead by example,” Micah said.
All of the Stewart brothers agreed the move from Ontario to Halifax was smoothed by having each other, and Micah said it helped convince their parents it was a good move.
“It’s nice to chat about some of the moves we pick up on or just in our day to day life,” Micah said.
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