HAVILAND, Ohio - The bond between players on a sports team is often described as ‘family.’ For Wayne Trace High School's boys and girls basketball teams, it literally is family.
Panning down the Raiders’ rosters on both the boys and girls team, you find a host of Sinns—8 on the girls team, 2 on the boys—who are siblings or cousins.
“Everybody asks me about the Sinns, but we have Stollers on both the boys and girls teams; and their moms were Sinns,” boys head coach Jim Linder, a Wayne Trace alumnus, says. “My wife was a Sinn. So there’s a combination, a common denominator.”
The Sinns, the Stollers, the Linders and those players not necessarily related have been part of resurgence of Wayne Trace basketball over the past decade. The boys have won 6-straight Green Meadows Conference championships, while the girls have won back-to-back GMC titles.
“I have a lot of girls who have a lot of basketball I.Q,” girls coach Bethany DeJarnett, also a Wayne Trace alumna, says. “We’ve had a lot more followers this year and in the past couple of years. The girls enjoy that support.”
The Lady Raiders (18-4) are peaking at the have won 5 straight games by an average of 19.0 points. As a smaller team, Wayne Trace uses speed and intuition to their benefit
“Sisters know what they’re going to do in an instant,” guard Gracie Gudakunst says. “I’ve always grown up with them, so I feel like a sister.”
The girls face North Central on Saturday in the Division IV sectional semi-final at Defiance.
On the boys side, the Raiders are 17-4 with a lone conference loss to Antwerp on Jan. 4. As the regular season ends, Wayne Trace is peaking at the right time.
“We’re a close knit group,” guard Eli Sinn says. “The GMC title was our goal at the beginning of the year.”
The boys close out the regular season Friday night against Ottoville before heading to sectionals next week.
Wayne Trace High School is one of 31 high schools and universities in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio that partners with Parkview Sports Medicine for athletic training and other medical services for its student-athletes.