By William Soquet
Contributing Writer
Parents: Lori and Matthew Lynch
Activities: Soccer and basketball
Twitter: @Tt_lynch
Tristian is currently one of the area’s prolific basketball scorers, tallying his 1,000th point early this season for the Blazers. He also served as a center defensive midfielder for the N.E.W. Lutheran soccer team this past fall.
You scored your 1,000th point earlier this season. Has that changed you as a player?
“It’s been business as usual. Even going into the games, Coach [Meerstein] says that it’s a big milestone but it doesn’t change anything. It’s a nice thing, but for me, the season’s still going on, and I just want to play the best that I can.”
The Blazers have a really good assist man in Elijah Meerstein. Describe the feeling of knowing he will find you.
“It’s always reassuring knowing that when I have a bad game, he usually doesn’t have a bad game. So it’s good in that he’s always there for me and we always pick each other up, we always hold each other accountable. We’re both great basketball players, great basketball minds, great basketball IQs, so we know what to do. So when you have two players like that on your team, it makes everybody better and it makes everybody live up to their standards.”
N.E,W. Lutheran is a smaller school and plays in a different conference than most Green Bay schools. Do you ever wish to play more local teams?
“It would be fun to play Preble or East once in a while, but I wouldn’t say to be in their conference. I think that playing a few nonconference games with them, maybe once a year, would be fun.”
You also play AAU basketball. How is that?
“I just started playing this past season and it’s been really fun. I started on the B team and then worked my way up to the A team. We were really good this season. We won a big tournament in Minneapolis, that was a lot of fun. We blew out every team, we played better than everybody. It was so much fun, if I could do it all over again, I 100% would.”
You started playing soccer this fall. How did the season go?
“We played a lot better than past years. We were above .500 and we got a home regional (playoff) game, and our AD (athletic director) said that there hasn’t been a home playoff game in soccer since he was in high school here. So it’s been good for everybody. We played really tough competition; we held Sturgeon Bay to a close game. It was really fun, and it also kept me in shape for basketball.”
How was the learning curve during the season?
“It was a lot of growth. I played soccer in middle school, and it’s a big jump from middle school to high school. I think I grew a lot as a person and an athlete through that, knowing that I wasn’t one of the best players like I am in basketball. It helped me a lot to see all the different roles.”
Where do you go out to eat after games?
“Me and my friends like to go out to Culver’s a lot.”
Are you more of a summer or winter person?
“Summer. You can swim outside in summer, I really enjoy that.”
Do you watch movies or shorter shows?
“I like movies better. I watched the new Avatar movie, I thought it was OK. I really like Glass Onion — it’s a murder mystery that just dropped on Netflix.”
Do you have any pets?
“I have a cat named Cougar and I have two dogs. One is a German shepherd named Bose and I also have a German Wirehair named Stella.”
What are some of your hobbies?
“I like to work out at the Y.M.C.A. and playing video games is pretty fun too. I play Fortnite a lot.”
Where is one of the favorite places you’ve traveled to?
“I went to Iowa a month and a half ago to watch the Iowa-Wisconsin football game, and I thought that was pretty fun.”
What are some of your plans after high school?
“Go to college for sure. I’m probably going to play basketball in college. Go to a four-year university, graduate with my bachelor’s, maybe get my master’s and then get a job. I’m not sure what I want to do yet, there are still plenty of things floating around in my head as options.”