They've always been competitive, those Shead brothers DeShawn and DeVaughn.
   
Portland State junior DeShawn Shead is a two-sport athlete, an All-Big Sky Conference cornerback on the Viking football team (switching to strong safety in 2011) and a standout sprinter and hurdler in track. He recently won the bronze medal at the Big Sky Championship in the 110-meter hurdles and placed fourth in the decathlon in 2009 and is No. 2 all-time in the PSU record book in the hurdles.
    
Northern Arizona senior DeVaughn Shead transferred to NAU following two years on a national championship track team at Central Arizona College, the same junior college Viking sprinter Karene King attended. This year he was member of the conference's outdoor 4x400-meter championship relay team.
    
For the two of them and their family, this year's Big Sky Championship meet was something special.
     
It was in that meet during this year's mid-May championships in Sacramento, Calif., that the Shead brothers saw their first competition against each other since high school.
     
DeShawn, the younger of the two by a year, ran the first leg of the 4x400-meter relay for PSU, while DeVaughn ran the Lumberjack's third leg. As mentioned, DeVaughn's team swept the field.
    
“Back in high school, we competed on the same team. This was the first time in six year's we've competed against each other. It was a special feeling, more so, because it'll be the last time,” said DeVaughn, reached by phone as he was studying for finals in Flagstaff, Ariz. He hopes to pursue a career teaching history after college.
      
They might have competed against each other last year at the Big Sky Championship, but after a mix-up of some sort, DeShawn was scratched from the meet.
     
“For us to be able to run together on the same track was a big deal. We never thought we'd be in the same conference,” said DeShawn, freely acknowledging that his older brother has always been a little faster.
     
In high school, though, it was DeShawn who encouraged DeVaughn to go out for track because he didn't compete as a freshmanl (the two had played football together since they were in grade school).
    
“On the track, he was my motivation.  He was my competition, so that was my motivation... To compete with him, but I never beat him in high school,” recalled DeShawn.
     
They competed head to head in high school and were always one-two.  As a senior, DeShawn thinks he may have tied his brother's 49.60 Highlands High School (Palmdale, Calif.) 400-meter record.
       
In his senior year of high school, DeVaughn decided to concentrate on track having developed a sprinter's physique (today, he's 6-1, 170 pounds), and “since we split, (DeVaughn's) done nothing but get faster,” said DeShawn.
        
In this race, “I was just like 'I've got to beat my little brother'" said DeVaughn about 4x400 relay at Sacramento State May 14. DeShawn stands 6-2, weighs 216 pounds and has post-college football hopes - so “little” might be a bit of a stretch.
       
The two brothers have always been close friends and friendly competitors, according to their mother, Sherri, who has tried to catch as many of their events as possible (she probably saw a little more of DeVaughn on the track because NAU is closer to home, she admitted).
     
And this year's match up was something she couldn't miss.  She described it as “sentimental for me” while the brothers said her being there made the race “even more special.”
       
“I miss them so much that the chance to seem them both on the track was really something special. They've always been friends and they've always competed with each other. They've been strong competitors in everything… Video games, everything,” she recalled.
       
It's a close friendship the two share. They hung out together in high school and still work out together whenever they're home, even though DeShawn said they're different personality types.
      
“I'm more out going, he's more calm and mellow,” he said. Positing DeVaughn's desire to teach history, DeShawn is a health sciences major and communications minor and ultimately would like to be a personal trainer or maybe a football coach (“I find myself doing a lot of coaching now.”)
       
And their mother thinks they're both off to good starts in life.
      
“I'm really proud of both of them - They're good kids… Er, young men. They're good human beings," she said… Adding that she's especially proud that they're both scholar athletes.