Most kids always looked forward to a heavy snowfall.

Not Melissa Burk.

She feared it. And for good reason.

Even before the snow had settled on the ground, Melissa’s younger brothers, NIU wrestlers Danny and Duke Burk, were outside playing in it.

Seems innocent enough. Innocent, until one day she realized that Danny and Duke playing in the snow meant a face full of it for Melissa.

Yes, when Melissa looked out the window and saw her brothers building massive snow piles, she knew she was in for a rough day.

“We were tough kids and we took it out on our sister,” said younger brother Duke. “We’d build huge snow piles and shove [her] head in the snow.”

It’s not very often a 12-year-old big sister gets bullied by her six- and 10-year-old little brothers.

But when you had brothers who worked as well together as Danny and Duke, anything was possible. And anything often ended up being bad for Melissa.

“Even though they were four years apart, they always ganged up on me,” Melissa said. “But they have such a unique relationship and it’s amazing how close they are to each other.”

Fast forward to present day life at NIU, and Danny and Duke are once again living and working together. But instead of working on ways to terrorize their sister, the Burk brothers are working on ways to bring home a MAC wrestling title.

How close are they? Just ask coach Dave Grant.

“The kind of relationship they brought to our program gives us more team unity,” Grant said. “They bring another dimension to our team.”

But you wouldn’t know that watching a meet. Hey, you might not even believe they were brothers.

While Danny is grappling in the 174-pound class, Duke is jogging behind the bench waiting for his 184-pound match, seemingly not paying attention. Well, actually, Duke isn’t paying attention.

To make things look worse, they hardly talk during meets; especially in Duke’s case.

“If I get too into his match I get tired for my mine because it’s like I’m wrestling out there with him,” Duke said. “I had to talk to Coach Castillo to deal with the concept of not watching his match so much and just worry about what he did later.”

Besides, Melissa is often there to fill both in on how the other did.

She doesn’t hold any grudges from when they were kids. It was their rough housing that helped pave the way for them to become the wrestlers they are now.

And Melissa has something she can always hold over her little brothers.

In a family wrestling tournament when they all were kids, Melissa beat both her brothers. Then she retired from the sport.

It’s just like an older sister to get the last word.