How do two gifted and ardent softball players discover they are biological sisters? At a softball tournament, of course.

Or at least, that’s how the discovery went down for Polson’s Samantha Rensvold and Huntley Project’s Kyann Dean on Aug. 1 during the annual Veterans Memorial Softball Classic in Belgrade.

The gathering of some of the top high school players in the state brought Dean (who plays for a Class B school) and Rensvold (Class A) to the same field at the same time.

“The fact that we were separated, raised totally different, coached totally different, had different friends growing up, and we still ended up in the same spot, it’s insane,” said Sam in a recent interview. 

Also helpful was Dean’s classmate, Hayley Hernandez, who had met Rensvold at the same tournament the year before and thought the two girls bore a remarkable resemblance and played ball the same way.

Hayley had even shown Sam a picture of her friend, Kyann, and Kyann a picture of her new friend, Sam. Neither girl thought they looked alike.

But this time around, with all three playing at the same tournament, Hayley probed Sam about her family history and learned she had been born and adopted from Great Falls (same as Kyann), and that she had a birth sister “somewhere out there.”

“Everything lined up with Kyann,” says Sam. “And so from there, I went and told my mom, and it kind of just all fell together.”

Her mom, Mary Rensvold, talked to Kyann’s mother behind the rightfield fence as her daughter played outfield nearby. “I said, ‘can I ask you a question?’ And she said, ‘sure.’ And I said, ‘is your daughter adopted?’” They compared notes, and by then the two women were in tears.

Sam could overhear the conversation as she tried to concentrate on the game, but it was tough with her mom and Kyann’s mom discussing their daughters’ connection within earshot, and her sister sitting in the stands watching her play.

Conveniently, a thunderstorm interrupted the drama in rightfield and sent the two teams to the dugout for a mandatory 30-minute lightning break.

“So in the middle of my game I went out and met my sister,” Sam says. And they shook hands.

“What do you do in that situation?” Sam asks. “How are you supposed to greet your sister that you've never met before?”

The two girls relaxed as the day went on, hanging out with Hayley and joking around.

“We do have the same sense of humor and we laugh the same,” Sam says. “So it was pretty easy to get along.”

The semblance doesn’t end there. Both are excellent pitchers, and each had number 1 on their jerseys for the tournament. Both play volleyball and are outside hitters; both knew they had sisters somewhere; and both have older brothers who weren’t adopted.

Samantha’s family knew her birth sister had been named Kyann by her birth parents. In fact, Samantha’s dad, David, had been scanning sports rosters for years, looking for a girl with that unusual name. The family knew, and is in touch with Samantha’s biological brother, Case – a student at Columbia Falls High School.

Both Case and Samantha were adopted through Lutheran Family Services, but Kyann – the middle child – was adopted directly from her birth parents.

According to Mary, their birth mother (whose name is also Samantha) is an avid softball player who was playing a game in Great Falls right before she gave birth to Sam. She also came to one of Sam’s softball games several years ago.

“I was probably 12, so it was harder to kind of grasp the concept of it. And I think that I was just really nervous and probably a little awkward,” Sam said. “I didn't really know what to do.”

She met Case when the two were quite young and they’ve kept in touch, seeing each other a couple times a year, most recently when he attended her graduation May 31. He also knew there was a third member of his birth family.

Plans are in the works for him to meet his other sister and Sam hopes the three siblings will find time to get together soon. That’s challenging, she adds, since she heads to Spokane Falls Community College soon on a softball scholarship, Kyann is finishing high school at Huntley Project and Case is entering his sophomore year at Columbia Falls.

“We all have these busy schedules, but we definitely have to make time to do that.”

Meanwhile, the softball-playing sisters have stayed connected through Snapchat and are gradually getting to know each other. They have their friend, super sleuth Hayley, to thank for that.

 “She needs to be a detective when she grows up,” Mary said. “Amazing how she figured this out.”

Even after a year of athletic and academic achievements – which include graduating as valedictorian of Polson High and earning a softball scholarship – Sam says meeting her sister is the high point.  

“Of course, sports play such a huge part of my life, but family is just something so much more,” she says. “To meet her and then have that missing piece and feel so fulfilled in my heart. Yeah, it's definitely the highlight of my year.”