Local businesswoman puts Bathers basketball on the upswing

MOUNT CLEMENS — Karlin Traylor is a woman of many hats. Around Macomb County, she’s known as one of the owners of the Slaw Dogsz food trucks and as a daycare operator. But this winter marks a big step forward in one of her other passions.

Traylor is the coach of the Mount Clemens High School Battling Bathers varsity boys basketball team, the first woman to occupy the position and her first time coaching boys.

“It’s a joy,” Traylor said. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity. … We’re like a family and I’m honoring every opportunity to coach young men.”

Traylor’s basketball career began as a player for what was at the time the Mount Clemens Middle School Bulldogs in the 7th grade and extended into her high school and college years with spots on the 2006-08 Wayne County Community College and 2008-09 Marygrove College teams. Traylor played as a primarily defensive player.

For more than a decade, Traylor took a sabbatical from the world of basketball, until she received a fateful message.

“I received an inbox one day on my Facebook from a New Haven coach, Erik Williams,” Traylor said. “He asked me if I would please be a part of his coaching staff, and I said, ‘Sure. I’ll give it my all.’”

She joined the New Haven Rockets varsity girls basketball team from 2021-2023, serving under the direction of Williams and taking the team to a two-season record of 23-18 in Michigan High School Athletic Association play.

The experience was life changing for Traylor.

“I fell in love with it,” Traylor said. “I said this what I really wanted to do, and from the second year of being at New Haven I received 10 different offers for varsity girls positions at other schools.”

Despite the 10 offers sent her way, Traylor ultimately decided to return to the city where her basketball journey began to coach her first team of boys.

Coaching the boys has been a bit of a change, but a good part of the work done has focused on what happens off the court. She’s observed that the boys tend to require more work building up a solid mentality for game day and has enlisted male assistants to help on the psychological front, among other tasks. Traylor has also made an effort to bring her boys closer to the city they play in.

“We walked around downtown Mount Clemens and introduced ourselves to every small business,” Traylor said. “Now we’re seeing some of those businesspeople and staff at our games. … I want to teach them how to network, how to build relationships. Now they’re saying, ‘Wow, we’ve met these people and they’re coming to our games,’ and not only that, you also have a connection. You can be walking somewhere, and you can hear, ‘Hey, I know that kid.’ The community recognizes their community school basketball players.”

Traylor has made connections not just with businesses but also with government officials, including judge Teri Lynn Dennings and Anthony Forlini, Macomb County’s clerk and register of deeds. Interacting with the city’s businesses and officials has brought support to the program. One such example of Traylor’s approach to the team coming together is the decision to dress up for away games. She wanted players to walk into the gym of Center Line Preparatory Academy dressed to the nines, but not every player had a suit. This might have killed the plan, had a supporting organization not stepped up and provided them with the clothes they needed. It started a new tradition for the team.

Unfortunately, dressing smart did not mean the Bathers defeated the Bears. Center Line Prep claimed a 42-64 win, the first loss of what was a 1-3 season at press time. It may not be the most triumphant start to the season, but Traylor is quick to point out the team’s improved performance over the prior season.

“The previous season was a struggle for Mount Clemens, being 1-15 and losing by 70 or 60 a game,” Traylor said. “We won our first game so that was exciting, we won by 22 points. … We just had our rivalry game on Friday against Clintondale and the expectation was that we were going to get blown out by 40 or 60 and we lost by four. It’s a major improvement.”

Improvement is there. The Bathers have scored 208 points against 222 scored by opponents in their first four games, a far cry more competitive than the 64-323 trouncing faced by the 2022-23 team in its first outings. Success is there, if mostly showing in the scores rather than the overall record.

“We need to trust ourselves more — trust ourselves and each other as teammates,” Traylor said. “Once my boys find that chemistry, we’re going to be a very nice, established team.”

As Traylor seeks to build trust between players and add wins to the team’s record, it will be one more thing the coach has on her plate. Her head coaching duties are split between the varsity basketball and cheer teams alongside the operation of the Jelly Moon Learning Center preschool, in Clinton Township, not far from where her restaurant’s coleslaw-covered hot dogs are prepared in the peak food truck season. It’s a lot for one person to manage, and Traylor is not shy about recognizing the support she gets in all of her pursuits.

“It’s all about balancing and using those helping hands,” Traylor said. “I have two directors that run the preschool, so they handle everything in that area. … Cheer team, I have an assistant there. Most days she’s doing practice and I come in and make sure it’s up to par.”

Traylor plans to remain in coaching for a long time, with a goal of coaching at the collegiate level, but Mount Clements residents can see her and the Battling Bathers now at the Mount Clemens High School gymnasium or at any away game.

The next home game is against the Southfield Bradford Academy Bulldogs on Dec. 22. The team’s schedule can be found at mhsaa.com/schools/mtclemens/boys/varsity/basketball/2023.