To say the Shaffer sisters of Cary, NC, come from an athletic family is quite an understatement.

Ashley and Alexis are both standouts with Raleigh-based club CASL Spartan Elite. Ashley is a midfielder and forward for the club’s U17 team, while Alexis plays attacking center midfielder for the club’s U15 age group side. Ashley, a 2011 graduate, has made a verbal commitment to play college soccer for Dave Nolan at Georgetown, while Alexis is already starting to attract college interest as a high school freshman.

That in itself testifies to the family’s athletic prowess, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg for the Shaffers. The girls’ father, David, played college basketball at Clemson and Florida State, from where he graduated. Their grandfather, Lee, was an NBA All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers and an ACC Player of the Year at North Carolina. Older brother Shawn plays basketball at a top college prep program and younger brother Ryan is already making his mark in a number of sports other than soccer.

The girls’ mother Stacy does not have an athletic background, but does know something about competing and winning, as she won the Miss Florida Pageant in the mid-1980s (she met David when both attended Florida State) thus qualifying her as a contestant for Miss USA.

Even the girls themselves have some athletic diversity, having been involved in youth gymnastics and track and field.

But soccer became the sport of choice for the girls some time after the family moved to the Raleigh-Durham area. Parents and daughters alike, point to the influence of The Next Level Academy run by Damon and Sean Nahas, along with CASL as a club, with helping them excel in soccer.

“When we first moved to this area in 2000, the girls had some friends who were going and they started going with them,” David Shaffer recalls. “There were some wonderful programs, and especially with me not having a soccer background, we were blessed to move to this area and have the soccer programs that are here. I’ve definitely become a huge fan of it now. It’s a wonderful athletic sport where you always have to run. As a dad I just sit back and enjoy it. As a parent I don’t have to push either of them. They just naturally go and of course they enjoy the camaraderie with their teams.”

Ashley is 5-11 midfielder who can play anywhere in midfield but also has shown potential as an attacking player. She confesses to enjoying playing soccer a lot more than watching it.

“I’m honestly not really that into it,” she said. “I mean I love to play, but I don’t have a favorite team. I don’t keep up on it like some of the other players on our team do.”

Ashley also said she is not too particular about what position she plays, and notes that good coaching has helped her develop as a complete player.

“As long as I’m playing is the main thing,” she said. “With Damon and Sean I got the first technical training I really had done. They helped form all of my skills and took me to the next level. I’m a pretty strong girl but having a good technical side to your game just opens up a whole new set of doors. Sean and Damon really stress that they don’t want to see their teams just kick the ball and run. They want to see us playing soccer and it’s really more fun playing that way.”

Alexis said the training she gets from the coaches has made her a better decision-maker on the field.

“We do a lot of training to make you think about the game. They don’t just teach you technique but they want you to know how to apply skills,” Alexis said. “They make it more like games. When we’re doing a drill, Damon will stop us and ask us questions about when to use it and what part of the field it would work on. He’s always bringing up different scenarios.”

While both sisters admit to having a healthy sibling rivalry where soccer is concerned, they are also big fans of one another.

“We’re really competitive, but we want the best for each other,” Ashley explained. “When we play 1v1 with each other we each want to win. When we go running, toward the end it’s always a race. She’s definitely a more technical player than me. She’s smaller, but quicker. She has a lot of potential.”

Alexis, just ending her freshman year of high school, voices a similar sentiment.

“She is 2 years older, but we started playing around the same time,” Alexis said of Ashley. “I used to go to her games and her practices. We would help each other out at home and go to soccer fields and practice together. We still do that today. We’ll critique each other and go 1v1. We definitely push each other.”

The girls also agree that it is “very cool” to point to a father and grandfather who played pro and college basketball and a mom who was Miss Florida/USA.

As they progress in their soccer careers, it will be Ashley and Alexis Shaffer of Cary, NC who will be on the receiving end of accolades from their family members.