Jarren Sina is Courier News Boys Basketball Player of the Year

 
Jarren Sina is Courier News Boys Basketball Player of the  Year  

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Gill St. Bernard’s Jaren Sina is the 2011-12 Courier News Boys Basketball  
Player of the Year. / AUGUSTO F. MENEZES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

 
 
 






 
 
 
 
Who is this kid? 
 
That’s what Alex Mitola wondered the first time he encountered Jaren Sina.  
They were in “third or fourth grade,” as Mitola recalls, and Sina was 
matching  him shot for shot during a youth league game. 
“I came down and hit a three, then this kid came down  and he hit a three. 
We went back and forth,” Mitola said. “That’s the first time  I really knew 
who he was.” 
Now the entire state knows. With Mitola as his  sharpshooting backcourt 
mate, Sina directed the Gill St. Bernard’s boys  basketball team to a 27-4 
record, a second straight Somerset County Tournament  title and the program’s 
first sectional crown. He averaged 20 points and 8.4  assists per game despite 
encountering every defensive gimmick imaginable. 
Last year Sina responded to such things by shooting  more, as if he was 
trying to prove a point. This year he was happy to set up  Mitola, standout 
forward Dom Hoffman or one of the Knights’ role players. 
“He let the game come to him and let everybody else  feed off of him,” 
said Mergin Sina, his dad and Gill’s had coach. “He became a  more mature 
player.” 
As a result, Sina is the Courier News Boys Basketball  Player of the Year. 
“We played a much tougher schedule this year, and I had  to adjust my game 
to the level of competition,” he said. “I had to score, but I  also had to 
find my teammates. I thought I did a pretty good job with  that.” 
So did college recruiters. Virginia and Northwestern  are among the major 
Division I programs courting him. The interest has been  overwhelming at 
times. 
“Especially during the season, when you have so many  coaches involved and 
they want you to take visits and come to games, sometimes  it can be a 
distraction,” Jaren said. “My biggest thing was, mentally you have  to worry 
about your team and all the recruiting stuff will come.” 
He focused on the task at hand, and the results were  impressive: 20 points 
and 10 assists in a sectional final squeaker over Trenton  Catholic, 14 
points and nine assists in the Somerset County final triumph over  
Bridgewater-Raritan, 19 points and 10 assists in an upset of nationally ranked  Mater 
Dei (Calif.), 22 points and 10 assists in a one-point loss to  Plainfield. 
On the season Jaren shot 42.9 percent from 3-point  range, tallied 250 
assists compared to 69 turnovers and scored in double figures  in all 31 games. 
He has 1,600 career points and should crack the 2,000-point  barrier 
two-thirds of the way through this senior year. 
Sina’s emergence has been a lifetime in the making.  Mergin Sina starred 
collegiately at Rhode Island and played professionally  overseas; Jaren was 
born in Portugal during dad’s stint there. Younger sister  Jasmine is a 
sophomore shooter who just helped Gill’s girls reach the Tournament  of Champions 
final. Those driveway games of H-O-R-S-E must be something  else. 
“The great thing about our household is everybody loves  the sport,” 
Mergin Sina said. “I don’t know if we’ve taken a vacation the last  15, 20 
years. Our vacations have been traveling with the kids on the AAU  circuit. We 
enjoy it — we don’t second-guess it. For us it’s a very easy  thing.” 
 
 
Gill St. Bernard's Jaren Sina, here playing in last  February's Somerset 
County Tournament final against Ridge, scored 22 points  Saturday in a 
competitive loss to St. Anthony. (Jason Towlen/Staff  Photographer)