When Kenny and Nick Embrey were growing up, they would often talk about their aspiring baseball careers and how it would be great for the two of them to play on the same team.

But with a three-year age difference, there wasn’t much of an opportunity for that to happen. Kenny was always one step ahead of Nick, including at Ardmore High School, where Kenny was on the varsity team while Nick was on junior varsity.

But that dream is finally about to become a reality as Nick recently signed to play baseball at Martin Methodist, joining Kenny, who will be a junior in the fall.

“Playing in the backyard, we always talked about it, and now it’s becoming a reality,” Kenny said. “It’s something we’re both really excited about. We would talk about it, saying ‘what if, what if,’ but as time passed, things have started unfolding and now it’s actually going to happen.”

Nick said the opportunity to play with his brother was something he could pass up when he was offered a baseball scholarship by Martin Methodist College, located in Pulaski, Tennessee.

“I always thought it would be cool to play together, but never knew if I would get offered (by Martin Methodist),” Nick said. “When I did get offered, I thought this was the opportunity to get to play with him and it was something I couldn’t pass up.”

The brothers have been playing baseball since they were about 5 years old, with Nick always looking up to Kenny as a baseball role model.

“When I was younger, I did look up to him. And the way he did things kind of showed me the way I would do things,” Nick said. “I would always want to go out and play with Kenny and the older guys. I still look up to him nowadays, but it’s more of a competition. We butt heads on it sometimes, but it’s still a lot of fun.”

Kenny remembers the days of the younger brother trying to one-up the older brother, and he didn’t always take too kindly to it.

“On yeah, we would get into fights when we were kids over little things when playing whiffle ball,” Kenny said with a laugh. “There’s always been a competition.”

That competition will still be there at Martin Methodist, as both players play infield positions and could potentially compete against one another for playing time.

“It will be fun, but it’s no different than competition against anyone else on the field,” Kenny said. “We’re still baseball players. We’ll be teammates first on the field, but we’ll always be brothers.”