Jefferson Student Hits Basketball Big Time

Jefferson native and bona fide basketball star-in-the-making Jaren Sina admitted to being something of an unknown to most outsiders entering his freshman year at Gill St. Bernard’s School (Gladstone) in 2009.  

However, those who played with him and coached him knew better. They were well aware of Sina’s talent. They were daily witnesses to his dedication and drive.

Fast forward almost two years later and now everyone knows. The Jaren Sina secret is out. The 17-year-old kid from little-known Lake Hopatcong can play.

Sina’s high school career started out fairly quiet by his own standards. Over the course of his freshman campaign he showed signs of promise in helping Gill St. Bernard’s (GSB) to a 19-7 record while averaging around 12 points and six assists per game.

Things started to get a little loud in Sina’s life on the day GSB finished the year with a loss to national powerhouse St. Anthony’s High (Jersey City). That morning he got his first scholarship offer from Rutgers University.

The news kind of came as a shock to Sina because of the way he found out. He didn’t receive a phone call or even a letter from a representative of the Scarlet Knights. Instead, he read about it in the newspaper. No matter how it happened, it was still a pretty big deal for Sina.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Sina said. “It’s a Big East school and it was my first offer. I didn’t even know how to react.”

The summer of 2010 was ahead and that’s when Sina really started to make noise on the national scene. It was the start of a crazy and amazing year to come for the 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard.

He continued to improve and gain notice on the AAU circuit representing N.J.’s Hoop Heaven Heat Elite 16U squad coached by his father Mergin.  

It was at that point in time that Sina received his first ranking in the ESPN Top 100, which gives notice to the top basketball players in the country in each class by year. Last year’s freshman class, Sina’s class, is considered the class of 2013 because that’s when they’re scheduled to graduate.

Shortly after the rankings came out a lot of other colleges started to take notice. One such college was the University of Alabama. While the Alabama staff was in Orlando for the AAU Nationals to watch another recruit play, Crimson Tide head coach Anthony Grant liked what he saw of Sina and invited him to their elite camp that August. Sina excelled and earned another scholarship offer.

While he was in Tuscaloosa for the camp, he and his family decided to stay an extra day and take an unofficial visit. From that point forward a member of the Alabama staff was at every one of Sina’s games to show the team's support and interest. A meaningful relationship was starting to form.

With momentum and attention gaining on a daily basis, Sina turned his focus to his sophomore season.

The 2010-11 high school season would be a little different, Sina admitted, after his father became not just his AAU coach but his high school coach as well. Before taking the job as the boys’ coach, Mergin was a very successful girls’ coach at GSB, leading the ladies to a 106-49 overall record in his six years on the sidelines.

“It’s a little tough having your dad be your coach, especially when you have to go home with him after,” Jaren joked. “But it was a great opportunity for him, and I was used to playing for him because of AAU. So far we’ve done pretty well with it.”

“Pretty well” is an understatement. 

In just their second game of the year, the Sinas and GSB squared off again with mighty St. Anthony’s. Jaren had a strong outing with 23 points on eight field goals, six of which were three-pointers. He also handed out five assists in a 62-50 loss.

The team result, however, was understandable considering St. Anthony’s was ranked No. 1 in the country at the time and would later be recognized by USA Today with its fourth national championship after an undefeated 33-0 campaign.

“I remember that night when I got home I got like 14-16 offers from schools,” Sina said. “Everything was just exploding.”

And while Sina was now sparking interest from a number of big time colleges, he also noticed most of the schools that were looking at him were also still actively making other commitments to other players. Alabama was not one of those schools.

“When I first went down there, I didn’t want to go on the trip because I thought ‘what’s a kid from Jersey going to do in Alabama’,” Sina said. “But when I got there I just fell in love. I also built a pretty great relationship with the coaches. I don’t know. It just felt right.”

In late January Sina gave his verbal commitment to attend the University of Alabama.

“The night I committed they told me that they wouldn’t get any players in the 2012 or 2013 class that are point guards so that made me feel really confident, Sina continued. “I wasn’t one of those kids that talked a lot about it and said I was getting recruited by such and such. I just knew it was the right fit and I just did it.”

At peace with the decision he made, Sina finished his sophomore season strong. Led by his father and alongside a solid cast of teammates, Sina helped propel GSB to the school’s first-ever Somerset County Tournament title. They finished the year with a 26-3 record. In the process, Sina averaged over 21 points and seven assists per game and was named The Star-Ledger’s Somerset County Player of the Year.

Thanks to his efforts over the course of his second scholastic season, Sina saw his national ranking continue to climb to No. 51 overall in the ESPN Rise Super 60, No. 11 amongst point guard prospects for the class of 2013.

He didn’t slow down this summer either.

Over the last three months (May-July), Sina has continued to progress and gain notice. In that span he’s been traveling to participate in various camps and AAU tournaments throughout the country. Sina’s nationwide tour has included stops in Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

This one crazy summer has included two AAU titles for Hoop Heaven’s 17U team (Providence Jam Fest – Providence, R.I.; Triple S Harley-Davidson Jam Fest – Morgantown, W.V.) and a special team trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala. in June that turned into something a little bit more meaningful.

Initially the GSB boys’ team had scheduled the trip to take part in the Alabama High School Team Camp and tournament hosted by the University of Alabama. It was supposed to be a way to get the boys competition against some southern teams. But that plan was put in place before a deadly tornado ripped through parts of Tuscaloosa on April 27.

After watching the news in shock and awe, Jaren and his father decided that their team trip should become something of greater substance. Instead of just playing basketball, the Sinas wanted to help the community. Instead of just being a trip open to the team, the Sinas thought to extend an invitation to anyone at GSB who wanted to help in the effort.

To help raise money for the trip and for the cause, the team held a “Baskets for Alabama” shoot-a-thon before heading down south. The event raised close to $15,000, a substantial portion of which went to the relief fund.

In total, a group of close to 30 made the week-long trip to assist with the tornado relief efforts. The GSB crew helped in a number of ways. One day they helped sort clothes and box them up at the Tuscaloosa Emergency Services building. The next day they cleaned debris in areas directly affected by the terrible storm.   

“It was bad down there. It was unreal,” Sina said. “So while we were there we just tried to help out as much as possible."

They also managed to mix in some basketball, capping off their trip by winning the team tournament.

When Sina returned, there wasn’t much time to rest as he earned the right to take his talents to Akron, Ohio to participate in the prestigious LeBron James Skills Academy. LeBron’s camp, hosted by none other than King James himself, includes only the top 80 high school players in the country.

Sina was caught off guard by the invite despite playing well at the Nike Elite 100 Camp (St. Louis) in mid-June, an event which featured approximately 100 of the nation’s top players from the 2013 and 2014 classes.

“One day I was just sitting at home when I get a call saying 'you’re invited to the LeBron James Skills Academy',” Sina said. “They only pick a select few in the country from my class so they felt that I was one of the top players. That was probably the highest accomplishment I’ve ever gotten.”

The camp was a four-day event. The first two days involving training and drills. The last two involved scrimmages amongst the campers. 

Sina did more than hold his own, making his presence known by being named one of the top players for Day 1 and Day 3 of the camp. 

“I think I had a really good week,” Sina admitted. “I feel like I was one of the true point guards there that got everyone involved and knocked down shots. I was kind of like the floor leader so I guess that’s what got me noticed.”  

Sina just completed his summer schedule at the end of July with a near two-week trip to Orlando, Fla. with his father and Hoop Heaven teammates. The highlight of the trip was when the team reached the Final Four at the AAU 17U Super Showcase. They also took part in the AAU National Championship tournament.

Sina’s rise to scholastic stardom may seem like it came upon him quicker than a Derrick Rose crossover dribble, but in truth it’s been years in the making.

When he started playing in the Jefferson youth leagues growing up, Sina admitted he wasn’t that good, certainly not noticeably above and beyond any of his friends and classmates.

But basketball was in his blood. Not so long ago his father was a versatile 6-foot-7 forward who enjoyed a successful 12-year professional basketball career in Europe after playing collegiately at Seton Hall and the University of Rhode Island.  

Upon enrolling at GSB as a sixth grader, Sina became more involved in the game because his father was now the head coach of the GSB high school girls team. Mergin, however, was cautious not to push his son into the game against his wishes.

Slowly but surely Jaren’s passion for the game grew and with it his desire to improve. Once Jaren became involved with the area AAU program and Mergin knew he was starting to get serious about the game, he decided it was the right time to lend a hand.

Early on Mergin focused on skill work with Jaren, specifically ball handling.

“I was always a big believer in skill work and with him, he always liked doing it,” Mergin Sina said. “Everybody talks about shooting and passing, but I think the ball handling is so important for kids at that age. So he really picked it up early and was good at it.”

By the time Jaren was in eighth grade, he began to sense that he was starting to separate himself from other kids his age. Jaren and his father attribute his progression not only to their individual work but also to his experiences playing against older competition.

“The AAU team that I coach, we always played up a couple years,” Mergin Sina said. “The seventh graders were playing against freshmen in high school and in eighth it was JV and varsity at one point.”

“So when I saw that he (Jaren) was consistently competing against kids that were two or three years ahead of him I said 'you know he might have something if he keeps working'.”  

And Jaren has continued to work.

This year he began to focus on incorporating weight training into his daily routine because he knew he needed to get stronger.

So every morning before school, Jaren would wake up at 5:30 a.m. to head to Black Bear Fitness on Route 15 to get in a workout. Over time, Sina has seen some gains, and those gains have helped him on the court.     

Jaren also doesn’t just play the game, he studies it as well. Anybody who names Bobby Hurley as one of the players they pattern their game after has studied basketball and its history. For those readers who may not recognize the name, Bobby Hurley was one of the best high school players ever to come out of the state of New Jersey. He was a point guard, like Jaren, who went to Duke and helped the Blue Devils win back-to-back NCAA titles in 1991 and 1992. That was 20 years ago, well before Jaren was born.

Jaren’s studies, however, haven’t only been with basketball in mind. He continues to perform at a high level in the classroom as well. According to Jaren, his current grade point average is 3.1. 

With summer now almost over and just a few weeks to relax before school starts up again in September, chances are Jaren will do what most teenage kids do. He might go to the beach or the lake, maybe catch a few movies with friends or grab a bagel at Adam's Bagel Shop.

Then again, he might just stay at home on Weldon Road and work on his game with his sister Jasmine on their backyard court. Rumor has it that his sophomore-to-be sis, the starting point guard the GSB girls’ team, has some serious game as well.