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Trice home revolves around basketball

With his father as coach, junior basketball player is attracting collegiate scouts to Wayne’s games.

E.L. Hubbard Devin Bartlett and Travis Trice II get directions from Wayne Head Coach Travis Trice during a game last year.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Mickey Zezzo, Contributing Writer 7:47 PM Thursday, February 18, 2010

HUBER HEIGHTS — No reflection on mom, but the main course in the Trice household just happens to be basketball.

Julie Trice, the mother of five, must be serving up the right bill of fare because she and her husband, Wayne High School coach Travis Trice, appear to be cooking up their own little hoop empire.

And you can start with the coach, who at 37 is one of the area’s youngest and hottest hoop coaches.

He was 13-2 heading into the homestretch of the season and 52-11 thus far in his three-year career at Wayne.

Completing the winning Trice combo for the Warriors is Travis II, who may be second to no one when it comes to luring collegiate coaches to Wayne’s games for a look-see.

“I think what attracts them most is Travis’ perimeter strength.” said his dad.

“And the fact that he’s a combination guard, a feisty competitor who has worked hard at his craft and in the classroom (3.8 GPA).”

Trice II leads Warriors

The Warriors, season-long leaders in the GWOC’s Central Division, feature a strong — and young — cast around their scoring leader, a spindly 6-foot, 160-pound junior who’s serving his second season as captain.

“Sure we talk basketball at home and at the dinner table,” said young Travis, sporting a 20-point plus average all season. “We scrutinize game films again and like to discuss upcoming opponents.”

As far as dad is concerned, one of his son’s most impressive stats is his 1.1 turnover ratio. “That has to be one of the stats that attracts scouts,” his father said.

The stat sheet for Trice also shows 3.6 steals, 49.4 shooting percentage, 39.2 on three-pointers, 4.2 in assists and a shiny 75 percent at the foul stripe.

Most of the colleges keeping a close eye are D-I schools and include the University of Dayton, Butler, Cleveland State, Wright State, Miami, Ohio U., Akron, Bradley, Indiana State, Missouri State and from the Big Ten, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Also, Notre Dame, Providence and Cincinnati.

Young Trice plans on majoring in sports management.

His father is a native of Princeton, Ind., who played at Purdue under Gene Keady for two seasons, including an NCAA Big Dance shot, before transferring to Butler, where he was also a starter after sitting out a season.

He has two degrees, one in communications and the other in business administration. The coach has a State Farm Insurance agency in Huber Heights.

Sibling lineup

Julie Trice was a cheerleader and track performer (long jump and 800) at the old Springfield North High School and the Trice basketball home team shapes up like this:

D’Mitrik “Meechi,” a seventh-grader at Weisenborn; Isaiah, a fifth-grader at LaMendola Elementary; Olivia, a third-grader also at LaMendola; and last but hardly least is raw rookie Acelynne, only 17 months old, but certain to be nicknamed “Ace” when she heads for the court.

Trice II’s favorite pasttime is watching movies. His first choice is of course Warrior game films, but after that he loves grabbing some popcorn and watching Denzel Washington or maybe some Will Smith flicks.

His efficient supporting cast of Warriors — sophomore Keith Clements, juniors Braxton Miller, Isaiah Boddie, Jason Bitsko, Adrian White and seniors Xavier Jones and Aaron Montgomery — like to sit in on the snacks.

Contact this writer at (937) 236-6032 or mickeyz@zoomtown.com.

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