Basketball
Favorite athlete: Troy Bolton :)
Favorite team: East High Wildcats!
Favorite memory competing in sports: Cutting down the nets after winning the conference my sophomore and senior years, Senior Night, and making a team music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dPKxD82uOQ
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One time I tripped over my own feet during a game and twisted my ankle.
Music on iPod: Country, Rap, Pop, and Disney
Future plans: Go to college, get a job and start a family!
Words to live by: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
One goal before turning 30: Get married and start a family.
One thing people don’t know about me: Disney World is my favorite place in the world!
By Mary Jane Souder
Peyton Traina doesn’t put up big numbers, and the Central Bucks West captain might be the least recognizable of the ‘Fab Four’ seniors who have been part of the program since they were freshmen.
But don’t underestimate her significance.
Traina, according to her coach, is the glue that holds this year’s successful team together.
“Peyton is unquestionably the leader of our team,” coach Terry Rakowsky said. “She’s the kid who is the voice in our practice, the captain on the floor, the one who directs things.
“She’s really like a coach on the floor. She’s smart as anything, recognizes things right off the bat. She’s definitely an incredible person. The one thing we lacked last year – our leadership was okay, but we didn’t really have that strong leadership.
“She has evolved in the offseason and into the season – without a doubt as our leader.”
That’s high praise for a player who does not find herself in the spotlight on a roster that includes Division One signees Nicole Munger (University of Michigan), Corrinne Godshall (Binghamton University) and Mackenzie Carroll (Colgate University).
But it’s safe to say no one is enjoying this year’s magical season more than Traina,
“I love West, I love the team,” she said.
It is that love of her school and her team that made the decision whether she would continue playing basketball her final high school season a no brainer – even after making the decision last spring to no longer play AAU and choosing to not pursue basketball at the collegiate level
“It just got to the point where – not that I didn’t enjoy basketball because I do love basketball,” Traina said. “I think a lot of it comes from – I love the girls on the West team. I think that’s really the thing I love the most, not necessarily the sport.”
Basketball has been a savior of sorts for Traina this winter, following a chain of events that turned the family’s world upside down last summer.
***
Peyton Traina’s summer was following the usual script. Her family traveled to the Outer Banks in late July for a vacation with the family of her dad’s best friend from grad school. Day two began like any other vacation day at the beach.
“It was my dad’s 44th birthday – he, my mom and the couple they were with did a workout in the morning,” Peyton recalled. “They do P90X, T25, the crazy workouts, and they love to do it.
“My dad went out on the beach. All the kids were at the pool at the house.”
Suddenly and without warning, her father’s friend ran toward the house shouting, ‘Call 911, call 911.’
“We had no idea what was happening at the time,” Peyton said. “I had my phone, so I called 911, but I had no idea why I was calling 911.
“The operator said, ‘You need to go on the beach and tell me what’s happening.’ I just remember seeing my dad laying on the beach and his friend leaning over him. I said, ‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s my dad.’”
Mike Traina – a former standout basketball player and the picture of health – was flown to Norfolk General Hospital, the victim of a stroke.
In a heartbeat, the family’s world had changed.
While Peyton and her siblings remained at the beach house with relatives, Julie Traina stayed with her husband, who suffered another setback several days later when his brain began swelling.
“They moved him out of ICU thinking everything was clear, and when it started to swell, they had to do emergency surgery where they removed half of his skull so that it could allow room for the brain to swell,” Peyton said. “After that procedure, he was on a ventilator. They said he was supposed to start breathing (on his own) again after a day, and it had been three days, and he hadn’t. They actually told my mom he wasn’t going to make it.
“That was tough, and my mom had to tell us that. We all went home that Saturday to be together and just be at home talking about memories, expecting the worst.”
Instead, they got a miracle.
“We got a miracle call the next day saying he had started breathing on his own, so we all got back in the car and went back to Norfolk,” Peyton said. “It’s been crazy.
“He was there for three weeks until he was transferred to Jefferson in Philly because they have the best stroke program in the country.”
He continues his recovery at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center with daily visits from wife Julie.
“He’s been doing great,” Peyton said. “His entire right side is fully functional now. He’s starting to say words, and they think he’s going to be walking again, which is amazing.
“It’s been the craziest, craziest ride, especially since my mom has to be there with him, so I’ve basically become mom for my (four younger) siblings. It’s definitely been stressful trying to keep my schoolwork up, but I think we’re all doing well now knowing that he’s getting better.
“It’s good to see him improve – my siblings are seeing that. I’m trying to stay positive for them. I do have to be a parent a lot because my mom is at the rehab center every day. It is tough, but we’re getting through it.”
Her father is scheduled for cranioplasty surgery in two weeks.
“They will put the skull back, which is a big deal,” Peyton said. “We really want that to happen.
“He can be more mobile because it’s safe for his brain.”
Peyton is the oldest of five siblings – Jack (10th grade), Luke (seventh grade), Casey (fifth grade) and Abby (first grade). The family has been on the receiving end of tremendous community support.
“That is something we are so, so grateful for,” Peyton said. “We have had dinners and breakfasts come to our house every single night since the incident happened and still going on today.
“It’s unbelievable the amount of support. Family friends giving rides, babysitting, and me personally having basketball season – the girls on the team are just unbelievable. I don’t even know if I’ve told them this, but I can’t describe the amount of happiness it brings me to come home and just have a text from one of the girls on the team saying, ‘Thinking of you.’ They are such great, great girls. Not only great basketball players – they are just great people to be around.”
***
Peyton Traina grew up playing softball, field hockey and basketball. She opted to give up field hockey in middle school and softball in sixth grade but never considered walking away from basketball.
“It’s kind of been a sport that’s been in my family forever,” she said. “My dad played at Brown, and we actually have a half court basketball court in our house.
“That’s what my dad wanted over a pool or jungle gym. I’m the oldest of five kids, and we all play basketball. It’s more of a family bond thing. From a young age, that’s been the Traina sport.”
Peyton has been teammates with Munger, Godshall and Carroll since fourth grade, beginning with their DAA days and continuing into high school. She also joined the AAU circuit, most recently playing for the Philly Belles. The foursome all joined the high school program as freshmen.
“To be able to do that with Mackenzie, Corrinne and Nicole was just such a great experience for all four of us,” Peyton said. “The team was so welcoming and coach Terry is great at bringing the younger girls up, so we had been working out with the West team since fifth grade.”
With basketball a passion for the Traina family, it was difficult for Peyton – who had attracted interest from Ivy League and Patriot League schools - to decide to forego playing collegiate basketball.
“For a while, I had been back and forth with the decision,” she said. “But just for me, I think it would have been too much for me to go to college and be away from home for the first time. Especially my family situation – I needed to be able to come home.
“Even before all this stuff happened with my family, it was something I knew in my heart if I did pursue it – it would have fallen back on me. Once I got there and I was alone and there was no one there for me to kind of lean on, it would have been a little too much for me. Having one parent that did do sports in college and one parent that didn’t – I listened to both sides of their argument.”
A high academic achiever, Traina would like to study abroad.
“Some of the coaches said I couldn’t do some of the majors I wanted to pursue if I did basketball, so it just came down to – it would have been sacrificing certain things that I really didn’t want to give up,” she said.
With basketball out of the equation, Traina began a frenzied college search.
“I applied to 16 schools, so it was a crazy, crazy application process,” she said. “All my friends thought I was nuts, but I’m the kind of person that likes to have plenty of options.”
While she is still awaiting word from several schools, Traina’s top choices right now are Boston College, University of Virginia and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s been accepted at all three.
As for her major, Traina is uncertain.
“The only thing I’m 100 percent certain of is that I really want to work with kids when I’m older,” she said. “I love working with kids. I haven’t decided if that’s going to be med school, being a pediatrician or nursing or teaching.”
Traina, who is taking three AP classes, is a member of the National Honor Society. For the past two years, she has been the sole member from West on Central Bucks East’s Coaches vs. Cancer committee, an event that expanded to include CB West last year.
“It was a great, great experience, and I think it helped to see something else basketball can help with, not just winning games but that it can also help in the community, which was really, really great to be a part of,” Traina said.
The senior captain is a member of the Key Club and volunteers one day a week at the daycare at Doylestown Hospital.
Traina’s inspiration comes from the woman who is the glue of the Traina family – her mother, Julie Traina.
“You can ask anybody in this community – I am not even a little biased – everybody in this community loves her,” Peyton said. “We always joke that she could run for mayor and win in a day because she knows every single person. She knows the birthdays of the people at McDonald’s and she’ll make them cookies on their birthdays. She is just one of those people.
“She’s a great person, especially through all this. She has been the strongest person I have ever seen. I looked up to her before, of course, she’s the greatest mom in the world. After this incident, I can honestly say – I have never seen a more remarkable person. She is so incredibly strong, and watching her stand by my dad’s side this whole time – it’s been unbelievable.
“As horrible as the experience has been, we always say now that we know he’s going to be okay - this experience has made our family so incredibly strong, and that starts with her. We call family meetings every week and we talk about how we’re feeling. She has just been unbelievable. She has missed probably one of my basketball games this season and has been to every single one of my siblings’ CBAA games. I don’t know how she does it. I could never do it, and I’m not in college. She’s remarkable. She’s just the greatest person.”
According to Rakowsky, like mother, like daughter.
“I don’t now how she does it,” the Bucks’ coach said of his senior captain. “I don’t know if I could do it and hold it together the way she does.
“I really didn’t think we would have Peyton at all, let alone playing and being tough – mentally tough and physically tough for us. She’s definitely an extension of the coach on the court.
“She’s a special kid. She’s one of those kids you know down the road you’re going to be hearing about doing great things in life.”
