More than a QB
James Wood’s Tinsman finishes hoops career with stellar season

By David Selig
The Winchester Star

Winchester — As Trae Tinsman stood outside the James Wood gym being interviewed as the 2010 Winchester Star Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year last week, the senior couldn’t stop twisting, tossing and gripping the leathery orb in his hands.

Tinsman knew it might be the last time he got to play with a basketball for quite some time.

“Yeah, it’s probably going to be put away for a while now,” said Tinsman, who will attend Shepherd University on a football scholarship in the fall. “I’ll have the pigskin, and that’ll be my main thing the rest of my life. But, yeah, I’m still definitely going to pick up the basketball every now and then to shoot.” Throughout his years at James Wood, Tinsman has been noted mostly for his work with that pigskin, quarterbacking the Colonels to winning seasons the past three years.

But before he ever picked up his first football, Tinsman was shooting hoops with his father, Tim, and this winter he proved to be just as much a force on the hardwood as he was on the gridiron.

Tinsman led the Colonels in scoring (14.9), rebounding (7.3) and steals (2.1) per game and also ranked second on the team in assists (2.7) and blocks (1.0).

The versatile forward was named the Northwestern District Player of the Year by the league’s coaches and was voted first-team All-Region II and an all-state honorable mention.

“Over the past couple years, we keep telling him, ‘We know your focus is football, but you could have options to play college basketball,’” James Wood coach Al Smith said. “I really think he can play at that Division II level for basketball. He loves both sports, I just think football beats [basketball] out. But he’s a competitor in each one.”

Some of Tinsman’s fiercest competition has come from his best friend, Matt Johnson, who led the Colonels in scoring as a senior last season.

Through frequent games of one-on-one, Tinsman has improved his game, and when Johnson graduated last spring, Tinsman knew he’d have to make up for the loss.

“I knew not having him and Ben Boxwell, the two big players last year, that I would take a lot of the pressure on my shoulders,” said Tinsman, who averaged 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds as a junior. “With the inexperienced team we had, I think they came up way bigger than I think anybody thought in the whole community.”

Heading into the record-breaking February snowstorm, the Colonels controlled their own destiny to win the regular season Northwestern District title.

They faltered coming out of the layoff, losing games to Handley and Skyline, as well as their opportunity to finish atop the standings.

But in three inspired nights of tournament basketball, James Wood beat rivals Millbrook and Handley and narrowly lost to Sherando in the district final.

That run allowed Wood to reach the regionals, and it probably also allowed Tinsman to become the first Colonel to be named a player of the year since Brad Parkes in 2004.

Tinsman was often at his best in those big games.

In the district final against Sherando, he and James Bowens went back-and-forth until the final seconds. The Warriors came out on top, but Tinsman finished with a game-high 21 points, nine coming in the final quarter.

“Always against rivals you’ve got to go all out, every single play,” Tinsman said. “You know these guys from just seeing them around, and you’ve just gotta be enemies on the court but friends off the court.”

Smith said he’s impressed with how Tinsman can be such an accomplished two-sport athlete but not fall into the trappings of a stereotypical high school jock.

During a game at Handley in February, Tinsman chased a ball into the Judges’ bench, and when he felt an arm grabbing him, he ripped it away and said “Get off me.”

It turns out that arm belonged to Handley coach Tommy Dixon. Embarrassed about what happened Tinsman made sure to come over and apologize to Dixon afterward.

Dixon brought that up to Smith at the all-district meeting at the end of the season, and he isn’t the only coach who was impressed by Tinsman over the years. Coming into this season, Millbrook’s Scott Mankins said he thought Tinsman was the most underrated player in the district, which was ultimately proven to be true.

Tinsman credits much of his success to his father, who has been coaching him (either officially or unofficially) since he first started playing competitive basketball at the age of 6.

“He hasn’t stopped coaching me now,” Tinsman said. “Pretty much every sport, he’s been my coach and my dad forever. No one really knows about my dad and what he’s done behind the scenes. He probably works almost as hard as I do, talking to colleges and coaches. ...

“He’s taught me since I was little to be respectful and that sort of thing. He got my name out there for people to see me. We went to camps and stuff. He’s just been behind me every step, and I’m really thankful for it.”

Perhaps Tim Tinsman’s greatest influence on his son’s game is his rebounding.

“[He’s taught me] to be more aggressive down at the basket and rebound the heck out of the ball,” said Trae, who noted that his favorite game this season was a 24-point, 20-rebound effort against Jefferson (W.Va.) in January. “He used to always tell me to crash the boards. That was always his thing. He wasn’t as athletic, but he could always be physical, and he told me to crash the boards like he used to.”

Now the 6-foot-4 Tinsman will save all that physical strength and willpower for the football field.

He’s already received his marching orders for Shepherd’s off-season conditioning program, and he reports Aug. 7 to begin his collegiate career.

Tinsman admits deciding to play football instead of basketball has been a “conflict,” but he seems ready to tuck the roundball away in the closet and devote all his attention to becoming the Rams’ quarterback.

“I’ve been playing since I was 5 or 6, and now it’s going to be really weird not having basketball part of my life,” Tinsman said. “I’m gonna miss it, that’s for sure.”