Family matters
They are teammates who are cousins and cousins who are as close as brothers.
Kito Poblah and Carl Volny — junior wide receiver and running back, respectively — have been through everything together.
Both were born in Canada before moving to Florida. They lived together as far back as they can remember — coming of age together.
They played after-school and high school sports together.
So as they would have it, they were recruited and now play Central Michigan football — together.
“There is no question that there is a brotherhood there,” said coach Butch Jones. “In those two individuals, they’re always smiling, it’s like they always know what each other’s thinking. All they got to do is look at each other and they got a grin on their face and you know they’re very, very close.”
The pair have played off each other for years. They live together in Mount Pleasant, more than a thousand miles away from their home in Miramar, Fla.
And it is through that closeness and dependency on one another that has allowed them to gain the status and respect they have attained on the football team.
“They have both earned it and deserved it,” Jones said. “And they mean so much to us, not only on the field, but off the field as well.”
Cousins by birth, brothers by choice.
A Foreign Beginning
The pair has been living together since they were 6 years old.
“We‘ve mostly lived together all our lives,” Volny said. “We’ve been tight the whole time.”
Both were born in Montreal, but came to the United States at different times under different circumstances.
Poblah was 2 years old when his parents decided to move to Florida, which was an attractive option for their up-start cosmetic business.
Volny’s first move came when he was 6 years old for one reason — sports.
“My mom, she’s a big sports fanatic,” he said. “And she was like, ‘The States are better than Canada to play sports because they look at you.’”
Volny’s mom joined in with Poblah’s household in Florida. They now acted and lived as one family under one roof.
“Since we were 6-years old, we’ve all lived together,” Poblah said. “Me and (Volny) and my mom and his mom.”
The pair played baseball together at an early age, but Volny’s move was not permanent yet. He returned to Canada for three years to study French.
But when he moved back to Florida, Poblah’s mom gave him an order.
“When I did get back,” Volney said. “His mom told me I was going to play football ... and I didn’t know anything about football.”
Poblah, while his cousin was in Canada, had taken up the sport and found he had some talent. Naturally, his cousin followed.
Taking A Game Seriously
Poblah was never really a football player when he went to Pembroke Pines Charter High School — at least not like Volny, who picked the game up quickly. Poblah’s athleticism led him down a new road.
“I wasn’t really interested in football when I was in high school,” Poblah said. “I was more into basketball — I was trying to go big in basketball, that was my dream. I wasn’t really into football, but I just went out there to help them out. They weren’t too good, Carl was really the only guy on the team that was making them win.”
Volny was already the featured back on the varsity team, as well as a defensive standout, coached by now seven-year veteran Steve Bruns.
“He was the central focal point of our offense,” Bruns said. “Carl got the publicity first before Kito.”
A number of universities looked at Volny. He even had a verbal commitment to attend Ole Miss while he was a junior.
But, Poblah took over as quarterback going into his junior season.
It was then, Bruns said, that Poblah really started to get noticed and began taking football more seriously. But he never strayed away from Volny.
“We just took it from there,” Poblah said. “We just started winning games. It was so much easier to play with someone I had been playing football with my whole life.”
Bruns saw the pair as nothing but good for each other and for the team.
“They both supported each other,” he said. “They were very competitive — they wanted to win. They fed off each other and enjoyed seeing the other do well. You can understand in a family if they get jealous, but that never happened to them.”
Poblah and Bruns said they remember it like yesterday, the day Poblah signed to play for Central Michigan.
“Monday, right before the first game senior year,” Poblah said. “They called and said, ‘We’re looking at you.’”
The Chippewas had already taken interest in Volny over the summer and the school also was looking at a defensive back recruit on Flannigan, Pemboke’s opponent for the first game.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Poblah said. “I did really good that game. The second play of the game, I ran 63 yards for a touchdown.”
Poblah finished with 154 yards, but it did not matter. His future was already set.
“The recruiter stopped the tape after that play and called me and offered Kito the next day,” Bruns said.
Soon after, CMU offered a scholarship to Volny. Naturally, the pair was set to go to school, play football and continue living their lives together.
Living A College Life
Together for so long, sticking together after high school just felt right, Volny says.
Michigan and Mount Pleasant is a long way away from Florida, especially to an 18-year-old kid. “At the time, I wasn’t really thinking of it, but it was a good thing that we ended up at the same college together,” Volny said. “And not being homesick, either.”
Without Volny, Poblah does not think he would have had the success or the type of career he has built for himself.
“If Carl hadn’t been here, I probably would have been long gone,” Poblah said. “There were a lot of times when it was really rough.”
Life without each other would be challenging, Poblah said, with Volny steadfastly agreeing.
“I would lose my best friend. Who would I call? Who would I tell my stories to?” he said. “He’s the main one I go up to every time. Any time I have a problem, I just go up to him.”
When one is in need, the other is there.
“We are brothers,” Volny said. “I call him my brother.”
