Net gains at Trinity Academy

No gym? No problem for these dedicated athletes

Above, 6-foot-4-inch Kai Nemisto squeezes into the van that transports the team to games and practices. (Globe Staff Photo / Justine Hunt)

When you attend a private Christian school in its seventh year of operation, with fewer than 150 high school-aged kids and no gymnasium, traveling to play sports comes with the territory. Yet for Aaron Johnson, a senior on Boston Trinity Academy's basketball team, there is hardly any feeling of wear.

A typical weekday for a Boston Trinity player goes something like this: load up the school-owned van around 2:30 p.m., go over the day's game plan during the ride, arrive at the Mansfield SportsPlex around 3 p.m., and hit the ground running. When you've got just an hour and a half of practice time rented out, there's no time for loafing.

Trinity head coach Rick Linet has taken a "Miracle of St. Anthony" approach in dealing with having no facilities in his basketball program. No gym, no problem - the Lions are approaching the end of their season with a 19-2 record, including wins over strong New England Preparatory School Athletic Council programs such as Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, and Thayer Academy.

So Johnson, for one, doesn't mind.

"Almost every team has its hassles," Johnson says. "Sure, we'd be better if we had a gym, but we're not at a disadvantage. We work hard as a team."

Says junior forward Kadeem Wint, a potential Division 1 prospect, "I don't look at it as a problem. If you look at it, St. Anthony, they have no home court," referring to the Jersey City, N.J., Catholic school that annually produces major-college prospects. "I see us getting to where they are."

In fact, the team's current amenities could be considered a step up. Four years ago, when Johnson enrolled at the school as a freshman, the school was in Brighton and sharing its building with a synagogue; every Tuesday, students were dismissed early to accommodate the synagogue's schedule.

And the basketball team? They rented time at the Massachusetts College of Art gym, a facility with less-than-stellar amenities; problems included condemned bleachers, falling ceiling tiles, malfunctioning bathrooms, and scores of dead spots.

And just getting to the facility from the school often took up to an hour - a combination of walking and public transport.

And the team was not particularly competitive. As Johnson tells it, "Basketball was probably the last sport anyone wanted to play. Kids did it just for credit."

So the current facilities will do just fine.

"I think that for the most part, it gives a little time to bond, coach the players a little bit," said Linet, in his fifth year coaching the Lions.

Image used to be a problem, too. Johnson says when he told people who he played for, they'd confuse his school with Newton's Trinity Catholic, which competes well in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's Division 4.

That has all changed these last three years. The school now has its own building in Hyde Park, blocks from Johnson's house. Competing in the Massachusetts Bay Independent League, the Lions went 27-2 a year ago. They won the National Christian School Athletic Association tournament in Erie, Pa., and were ranked 29th in the country by HoopUSA.

In addition to Johnson (11 points per game, 3.6 steals), a slew of juniors with Division 1 potential lead this year's squad - including Wint, Charlestown High transfer Lutheurson Bonheur, and overseas students Kai Nemisto (Finland), Gvodzen Vukojevic (Serbia), and Veljko Lucic (Croatia).

The play, as one might expect with limited practice time, is fast-paced. At once frantic and focused, the Lions have excelled in the transition game, where Wint (10 rebounds per game) is likely to finish around the rim, and Nemisto (47 percent on three-pointers) and Vukojevic (50) are likely to spot up from long range.

With just nine players on the roster, they have to be careful not to make careless fouls, forcing others to play out of position.

And they continue to sneak up on people. Just ask Brimmer & May head coach Greg Kristof, whose Gators slipped by the Lions, 60-49, in a physical battle on Jan. 9, the Lions' first loss.

"That's a very well-coached team. That's a game we came out expecting to win. I think we underestimated them, to be honest with you," said Kristof, who has the highly touted Kyle Casey leading the floor for his squad.

Linet continues to be creative with his resources. On Wednesdays, the team stays in the school and trains on exercise bikes. When they're not together in practice, Linet encourages players to watch game film on their own - you can find film for every Trinity game on YouTube, courtesy of Linet.

Who knows how many hits are the clips getting? Some counts rank in the teens, others in the hundreds.

But one thing is certain: Johnson no longer gets confused with players from other teams.

"We don't hear it at all," he says. "Not around the school, not in Hyde Park."