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All in the Family
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Canfield senior Rachel Tinkey prepares to make a free throw during practice. The four-year Cardinal starter recently scored her 1,000th point.
By Greg Gulas
CANFIELD
As a youngster, Canfield senior Rachel Tinkey tried gymnastics, took up dance and even gave cheerleading a whirl.
But she kept gravitating back to the gymnasium and softball diamond, arenas where she felt her competitive juices were more suited.
On Jan. 3 at Ravenna, she became Canfield’s 11th girls basketball player to surpass 1,000 career points.
Downplaying the spotlight, Tinkey is obsessed with praising those around her.
“This mark is a product of the people who surround me — teammates, coaching staff and family,” Tinkey said. “I’ve been blessed to have had so many great teammates and coaches, all of whom have helped me understand the game just a little bit better.
“Both sides of my family are pretty athletic with my mother’s side more into running and my father’s side having played basketball and baseball,” Tinkey said. “I am blessed because I have such supportive parents and a very supportive family.”
Her under-the-radar approach to everything that she undertakes remains a breath of fresh air to everyone around her.
A starter since her freshman year, Tinkey has helped the Cardinals to an 11-2 record, In her four varsity seasons, the Cardinals are 71-20.
Now with 1,070 points, she remembers her first basket.
“We were playing Lakeview and it was near the end of the second quarter,” Tinkey said. “I got the ball in the corner, was lucky enough to get a shot off and it happened to go in.
“We went into halftime on a high note so that just made those first points even more special.”
The basket that gave her 1,000 points came from beyond the arc.
“It came off a fast break,” Tinkey said. “The ball was kicked ahead to Erin Risner, she made a great skip pass to me for an open look and I was able to knock it down.”
A 38.6 percent shooter from three-point range, Tinkey has canned 139 of her 379 career buckets from downtown.
A 4.043 student in the classroom, she has played for two head coaches in her varsity career — Pat Pavlansky her first three seasons and current coach Matt Reel, who is in his 16th year overall with the Canfield program.
“Rachel is a star without a star’s ego,” Reel said. “She’s so smart that she is going to make the right play both offensively and defensively at crunch time.
“She takes players in the ninth grade that are struggling and helps them out,” Reel said. “She makes everyone around her better when she is on the court and because of her unselfish ways, everyone is happy when she does well.”
Pavlansky said Tinkey “has started every game since her freshman year, except when she was injured, so she is the kind of player you can depend on every day.
“At only 5 feet 6 inches, she’s not super imposing, but through hard work and effort has become a very special player,” Pavlansky said. “She’s played three different positions and while you can say this about a lot of players, Rachel truly does put her teammates first.
“I can tell you first hand that she is one of the very best that I have ever coached in 19 years at Canfield High School.”
Her father, Bob, is the Cardinals’ boys assistant varsity coach. Tinkey said his daughter is a perfectionist, someone who doesn’t like to leave things unfinished.
“What my wife [Tina] and I love about her is that has remained very humble,” he said. “I cannot tell you how many nights we would go to the middle school gym and shoot around and when it was softball season, wait until 10 p.m. when the batting barn was clearing out so that we could get in some extra batting practice or play catch.
“She was always willing to put in the extra time, yet her greatest attribute in my eyes is her willingness to put team ahead of any individual accomplishment.”
Rachel Tinkey said that looking ahead has never been an option under Pavlansky or Reel.
“I don’t feel like we’ve peaked yet and our focus has always been on the game at hand,” she said. “With nine games left in the regular season, we just want to keep getting better.”