The Highest Heights

If you’ve ever had children, or if you were a child, you know that Disney movies are rites of passage. But only a select few of us know what it’s like to be the subject of a Disney movie, which is quite a different rite of passage.

One of our Buzz neighbors is a member of that tiny club, as hers is the real-life story behind Disney’s 2002 Double Teamed, the mostly-true chronicle of twins Heidi Burge Horton and Heather Burge Quella, two of the first players for the WNBA.

Twins Heidi and Heather were once ranked by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest living female twins.

A Rocky Start

Heidi, who has lived in Memorial for the past 25 years, and her twin sister Heather grew up in California. It was chance – and a good dose of sibling rivalry – that catapulted them both to basketball stardom.

The twins moved with their parents to Palos Verdes at the start of high school because of the school there. “When you’re young,” Heidi says, “you know you’re tall, but I was always hanging out with people a few years older. Then we got to high school, and I was like, we’re really tall.” After a summer growth spurt of five inches, Heidi was 6’1” when she started ninth grade. “That’s hard on a kid,” Heidi says. “There are no boys tall enough. You just feel awkward.”

But awkward quickly turned in the girls’ favor when a coach stopped Heather in the hallway. “Oh my gosh, how tall are you?” he asked, following up by asking if she’d try out for his basketball team. “Heather came running home, excited, and I was just like, nah. I had already signed up to play volleyball.”

Heather made the junior varsity team about the time Heidi’s volleyball season ended. That’s when her dad stepped in. “He said, ‘Hey, I’ve thought about it, and I think you need to try out and play. What if Heather gets really good and really enjoys it, and you would never have tried?’ 

“He had given the order. All I could think was I hate you and I hate basketball and I don’t want to play. PS, the story goes, I played, then it was silly because all I did was try to beat my sister. Think sibling rivalry but extra because it’s twins.”

The Burge twins shared a car in high school.

Basketball Fever

After a start in junior varsity (“We were really terrible our first year,” Heidi says), Heidi and Heather were all-in, both earning full scholarships to the University of Virginia. 

“It was between Duke, Vanderbilt, and UVA. Education was first, we wanted to go to a good school,” Heidi says. “But when we looked at UVA, it was fall and beautiful and they had a great team.” Both sisters played on the UVA women’s basketball team for four years.

With the Burge sisters, the team went to three Final Four tournaments, winning three Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball championship titles. Then the twins went overseas – Heather played five years in France, and Heidi traveled between France, Italy, Hungary, Greece, and Luxembourg. The year they turned 27 was the year the WNBA was formed. Heidi played for the LA Sparks, then the Washington Mystics. “I was the first pick for Washington,” she says. Heather played for the Sacramento Monarchs. But the sisters never played against each other. “Heather was injured in ’97, ’98, and ’99. Then she got better, and I got injured.”

While on the University of Virginia women’s basketball team, Heidi and Heather played in three NCAA Division 1 Final Four Championship games.

“Six Weeks” in Houston

After a career-ending injury in 1999, Heidi set out to be a commentator and wound up in Houston as a summer color commentator for the Comets. But even before that, her lifelong friends Rita and Larry Brohman (who now live in Florida) were pushing her to come to Texas. “Rita’s husband worked with this tall guy, and she called me and said, We’ve found your husband,” Heidi says. “They talked about him so much I finally just said, Okay Rita, just to shut you up I’m gonna come meet this guy. They were sure I should marry him.”

“The guy” was Patrick Horton, a geographical information specialist who, Heidi says, “is not a competitor.

FAMILY TIES In 1999, Heidi's lifelong friends Rita and Larry Brohman, who lived in Houston, called her and said, "We've found your husband." Turns out, they were right. Heidi and Patrick (left) have been together since, and what was supposed to be six weeks in Houston turned out to be 25 years and counting. (Photo: jackophoto.com)

“He’s quiet, I’m not quiet,” Heidi says. “But he’s very friendly, like me, and Rita and Larry thought he was just like me. Not only that, but he was really tall. And he’s smart, and handsome.

“My dad said when you’re a woman and 6’5”, there’s a tiny box a man you’re going to marry would fit into. That was Patrick.”

So after meeting Patrick and then emailing back and forth for several months, Heidi’s commentating summer in Houston was welcome. “We got to date that summer, and even though I said I’d only be here for six weeks, I decided I was going to stay.

“I still can’t believe I’m still here,” Heidi says. “The weather is atrocious. And I moved here in July. There’s nowhere hotter than here in July! I told Patrick I was good with him, but if I was going to say yes, he was going to have to take me back to California. He agreed, but here we are. He never said when.” (Heather lives in Southern California, not far from where the sisters grew up, with her husband and three children. Heidi says they text daily and definitely share “that freaky twin thing,” showing up dressed in similar outfits and mirroring experiences, like stubbing their toes on the same day.)

Heidi and Patrick with their children Jonathan and Holly.

Passing the Torch

Hoarse from cheering on young players at her Hoops School basketball camp, Heidi relays the passion for the sport that, for the past 25 years, she’s channeled into coaching: “Most of the girls who played at my level – we were the top 80 players in the world – are somehow, someway still involved in basketball.” Teaching was the way for Heidi to stay connected when she realized being a commentator was going to require nights and weekends, time she and Patrick wanted to give to their two children. (Son Jonathan, 6’7”, is now a senior at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he is rowing and coaching young kids in rowing, and daughter Holly, 6’4”, recently graduated from Second Baptist and will start at the University of Arkansas this fall, where she will major in architecture and design, and will not be playing sports.)

“When you had the kind of coaching I did, you have to work really hard. But I also want to give a lot of credit to my coaches. Now I get to give the golden nuggets of wisdom to the kids I coach.”

Heidi had a basketball card when she played for the Washington Mystics.

Having heard all the how tall are you? jokes, Heidi encourages kids to give grace to tall kids. “They’re like babies doing the Frankenstein walk,” she says. “They’re goofy.

“You’d be surprised,” Heidi says about the impact that coaches or other adult mentors can have on kids. “Second graders, fifth graders, they listen. That’s the biggest reward in your whole life. I had so many people pour into me, and I get to just pour it right out. That’s the torch.”

Heidi says she’s been approached just about every day of her life by people wondering about her height. “They’ll ask Oh my gosh how tall are you?” And I’ll say I’m almost 6’5”, how tall are you? And they’ll laugh. The dumbest one is How’s the weather up there? One of my friends was 6’4” and said to spit on them and tell them it’s raining. I never did that!”

Heidi and Heather text daily and travel together; here they are on a recent trip to Yosemite.

Life hasn’t been completely easy as a woman over six feet tall. “Life isn’t made for a 6’5” person. We have to squeeze in airplanes. And cars. Pants are hard to buy,” Heidi says. “But Athleta has tall stuff now. It’s way easier for my daughter than it was for me.”

Still, Heidi was never daunted. “Hard is what challenges you and you rise to the occasion. Hard motivates you. We can’t moan and groan about things being really hard. We just have to try.”

The Disney movie Double Teamed (2002) is based on the high school basketball careers of twins Heidi Burge Horton and Heather Burge Quella.

Double Teamed: Fact vs. Fiction

Courtesy of Heidi Burge Horton

Double Teamed is a 2002 Disney Channel Original Movie based on the stories of twins Heidi Burge Horton and Heather Burge Quella, two of the first players for the WNBA. While the twins were very much involved in the making of the movie – writers interviewed them, their parents, coaches, and teammates – there were some liberties taken that make the story not quite true to life.

In the movie: Heather was an all-around super athlete, and Heidi was in her shadow. 

In real life: Heidi was an all-star volleyball player on the Olympic circuit already. Heather played basketball only.

In the movie: The twins moved to Palos Verdes to play basketball and get a college scholarship.

In real life: The family moved to Palos Verdes High School so that the twins could attend a stellar school.

In the movie: Heidi lied about her address at a party.

In real life: That wasn’t true, but it was true that the twins didn’t move to Palos Verdes before school started.

In the movie: There was a mean teammate named Nikki.

In real life: The team was close on and off the court.

In the movie: Someone ratted on the twins’ false address.

In real life: A counselor did notice that the twins hadn’t moved yet when school started.

In the movie: The family moved to a rundown apartment complex.

In real life: They lived in a beautiful townhome complex called Maison Au Bord De La Mer.

In the movie: Heather broke her ankle before the state championship game.

In real life: That wasn’t true, but Heather did sprain her ankle in a basketball camp at Long Beach State.

In the movie: The Palos Verdes girls’ basketball team won state.

In real life: They lost in overtime by one point off a free throw.

In the movie: The twins’ dad made an awful sandwich of chili, cheese, and chips.

In real life: That wasn’t true, but their mom loved a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich.

In the movie: The twins tipped the ball in a WNBA game.

In real life: The twins never played in a WNBA game at the same time.

Editor’s note: You can watch Double Teamed (TV-G) today on Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.