Like Parents, Ayrault Twins 'Born to Play'
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
November 30, 2017
GROSSE POINTE WOODS – Kim Ayrault and her husband Andy were careful not to overly encourage their children to play sports, specifically basketball, the sport they played so well for so long.
But if their children did decide to play, they would teach them to play the right way and be there every step of the way.
Julia and Joe Ayrault, juniors at Grosse Pointe North, are the first set of twins born to Kim and Andy. Annabel and Adam are the second. Born nearly four years apart, all four play basketball and the younger pair play multiple sports.
The Ayraults are a family whose lives often revolve around practices and games, and driving to and from said events. It can be simultaneously rewarding and tiresome, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kim recalls one of her first memories of Julia, a 4-year-old bouncing up and down the court.
“She went to the basket and scored,” Kim said. “Then she came back down with her ponytails flying and waving her hands up in the air, and I said to myself, no, no, no. I went up to her and said, you can’t do that. You can’t celebrate like that. She learned. She never did that again.
“She was competitive at that age. She was born ready to play.”
Julia Ayrault started bouncing a basketball just about the time she learned to walk. When her parents introduced her to the sport, she dove in head first and hasn’t looked back.
She tried soccer. That didn’t last. As a second sport she preferred baseball, but basketball was always first.
Julia and Joe, 16, both play varsity basketball and anticipate having more than just a good season. Their parents were also fine basketball players in the Pointes, Kim at North, Andy at Grosse Pointe South. The Ayraults’ other set of twins also play basketball, at Grosse Pointe Shores Our Lady Star of the Sea. Annabel and Adam are in the seventh grade and, yes, they’re good players, too. Annabel plays volleyball as well and Adam plays baseball. He was a member of the Grosse Pointe Shores/Woods Little League team that reach the World Series in Williamsport, Pa., this past summer.
After graduating from high school, the Ayraults began dating while playing basketball at Wayne State University. Andy was a junior, Kim (Reiter) a sophomore. Both had fine careers, both played four years and Andy went on to have a brief career professionally in Europe. The two are tall: Andy is 6-foot-7 and Kim is 6-foot, and, not surprisingly, their children are tall. Julia is 6-2, Joe 6-5.
It’s too early to tell, but Julia just might be the best. A three-year starter for longtime coach Gary Bennett, she has committed to Michigan State and is one of the state’s top players in the class of 2019. Bennett coached Kim in high school, and he first saw Julia play when she was in elementary school.
Andy has coached Julia, on and off but mostly on, since she started playing. Currently Andy is Bennett’s assistant coach. Andy also coached Julia at Star of the Sea and began coaching his two eldest children when they were in elementary school.
“From third to sixth grades I had her playing on the boys AAU team,” Andy said. “I used to put them on the same team because she was so good. In the seventh grade we switched out of AAU to the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization). Going on a weekend and playing four AAU games in one day wasn’t doing her any good. Playing two CYO games and practicing three days a week was better.
“Joe should have a breakout season. Julia had a breakout summer. She played more on the perimeter. She’s athletic enough to cover the post and take the ball to the rim.”
Andy has never stopped working with Julia, even if he wasn’t officially her coach. She developed a love for the game at an early age and Andy continued to teach, lending support as Julia’s game continued to improve.
“She blows our mind all the time,” Kim said. “We’ll say to each other later, did she really do that? When I watch, I see it from the stands and it’s a different look than what Andy sees. I’ll yell something at her during the game. Andy doesn’t like me doing that. I still do it.”
In addition to her playing basketball with the boys for three years, the athletically gifted Julia also played outfield and was a pitcher on a little league baseball team with her brother for two years. Also teaming up with Julia on that little league team was Evelyn Zacharias, one of Julia’s best friends and now a member of the North varsity basketball team as well.
One of Julia’s first memories of playing sports is a positive one.
“I remember when I was at Star of the Sea, we went a long way (in the playoffs),” she said. “It started to be a lot of fun. A lot of those girls who were on that team are at North with me. Evelyn and others. We have the memories.”
Kim and Andy have memories, too, and there are many more to come.
Right now, their lives are often discombobulated trying to give the four equal time. It’s a great goal in theory, but much more difficult to accomplish in reality.
A typical day will find Kim driving home after work as an elementary school teacher to pick up Julia from practice and get Adam to his game at Star of the Sea on time. One particular evening the MSU women’s team is playing the University of Detroit at Calihan Hall and Kim and Julia are going. Home by 10 p.m., there’s time for a snack before the good nights are said.
“People, many of our friends, tease us that we make them do this,” Kim said. “We’ve never done that.”
Kim keeps a schedule of all the comings and goings on a board hanging in the back of the house. She does it alone. She doesn’t trust anyone else to keep track.
Andy is in between jobs so his free time, if you can call it that, consists of completing Kim’s honey-do list.
“We were laughing the other day,” Kim said. “How did we do this before when (Andy) was working? I’m just trying to be patient.”
At the very least, 20 years of marriage will teach you that.
In addition to his work with Julia, Andy coaches Adam’s team at Star of the Sea, and he’s usually the one taking Julia and Joe on trips, whether it be sports-related or the occasional trip to check out a college campus.
Julia said with every member of the family involved in sports in one capacity or another, it helps keep them all together, at the dinner table, riding in a car or wherever.
“(Sports) is a big topic all of the time,” she said. “We have fun with it. We mess with each other.
“My dad has taught me a lot about the game. The biggest thing is to put others before yourself. My biggest thing is to get my teammates involved. Even if they’re not going to play in college, it should be a good experience for them. I try to make sure everyone has their role. I don’t want it to be about me.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Ayrault family, from left: Annabel, Adam, Andy, Kim, Julia and Joe; inset: Julia and Joe suiting up for Grosse Pointe North. (Middle) Julia and Joe celebrate a birthday together in 2012. (Below) Julia and her dad/assistant coach Andy anchor the right side of the team photo after last season’s District title win. (Photos courtesy of the Ayrault family.)
Youngest Salenbien Sibling Making Name as Family's Latest 1,000-Point Scorer
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 28, 2025
When Jaxon Salenbien was getting close to reaching the 1,000-point milestone for his career, he had some pretty good people to turn to for advice.
Salenbien is the third member of his family to reach 1,000 points. Both of sisters scored more than 1,000 points while also playing for Adrian Lenawee Christian and his father, Jamie Salenbien, is a state-championship winning coach.
“My dad has coached ever since I can remember,” said Jaxon, a junior. “My sisters were always playing. I just kind of flowed right into it. I’ve just always been around it. I’ve watched a ton of basketball. I think that’s helped.”
The talent certainly runs deep in the family.
Jamie Salenbien played high school basketball for Hudson and set the school’s single-game scoring record. His wife, Deborah, played in college.
Jaxon’s older sisters Dani and Bree both were all-state players at Lenawee Christian and led the team to back-to-back Class D/Division 4 championships. Dani scored more than 1,000 points before playing at Hillsdale College. Bree scored more than 2,000 points, won four straight Associated Press Class D/Division 4 Player of the Year honors and is now playing at Gonzaga. Jaxon’s older brother Tyler was all-state in football.
“I used to watch them; now they are watching me and cheering me on,” Jaxon said. “We always have supported one another. It’s harder for Bree since she’s so far away, but when she’s home, she comes to my games.”
Salenbien was an instant starter on the LCS varsity team as a freshman, scoring nearly 450 points. He had a knack for getting to the free throw line and was a dangerous 3-point shooter.
Last year he teamed with senior Brandon Summer – a 1,000-point scorer himself – to light up the scoreboard but was also a top-notch playmaker, dishing out more than six assists a game.
This winter, as a junior, Salenbien has been even more assertive with the basketball, shooting from the outside more often and driving with authority. He’s twice scored more than 30 points in a game, including 37 in an overtime win over Springport. It was during that game that he surpassed the 1,000-point milestone.
"Jaxon is not only super talented but also one the most dedicated gym rats I've ever coached,” Cougars coach Matt Summer said. “He is a great leader and a phenomenal teammate. His passion for the game is second to none. I'm super happy for him to hit this scoring milestone in his career."
That Springport win also was his first back in the lineup after an ankle injury forced him to miss two games.
“(The milestone point) had a weird timing to it because the game was so close,” he said. “They never said it over the PA system or anything because the game ended up going into overtime. I didn’t know exactly when I got it, but my coach told me.
“It’s a cool milestone to get as a high school player,” he added. “It was on my radar, but we just want to win as a team.”
Salenbien said there has been no magic formula to being more assertive on the basketball floor – he’s just playing the role on the team that an upperclassman should.
“Being an upperclassman, that’s what you are always going to do,” he said. “Taking control down the stretch is important for the junior and senior guards.”
The Cougars are off to a 12-2 start with a key stretch of Tri-County Conference games coming up. They lost their first TCC game recently to Petersburg Summerfield, which is 13-0.
The Cougars have excelled at 3-point shooting – averaging nearly 10 made triples a game.
“It’s so much fun,” Salenbien said. “Teams can’t key on one person. If they do, we have shooters everywhere.”
Jaxon is the youngest of the Salenbiens, who are all two years apart. He was in third grade when Dani started on the varsity. In fifth grade, his dad – who won 104 games in five seasons as the LCS girls varsity coach – coached him. Since then, his dad has been an assistant coach on several of his teams, including this year.
“When I was younger, he coached me in maybe fifth grade, but he’s never been my head coach, but always an assistant,” Jaxon said. “He’s always coaching me even if he’s not my coach.”
His sisters were definite basketball role models.
“Watching them has helped and just conversations we get to have,” he said. “Dani comes to pretty much every game now. Right before I reached 1,000 points, Bree and I had an hour-long conversation about things I need to work on and being coachable. It’s helpful to have those two to look up to on and off the court.”
Bree’s advice: Be coachable, be a leader and never think you can win a game by yourself.
His mom, who keeps the scorebook for LCS, offers her own advice – sometimes during games when he reaches the scorer’s table and checks in.
“We always say she’s the emotional support, and my dad is the basketball support,” Jaxon said. “She keeps me in line. She tells me to not complain to the referee and keep my head.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Adrian Lenawee Christian’s Jaxon Salenbien (24) pushes the pace bringing the ball upcourt against Blissfield. (Middle) Salenbien elevates to get a hand on a loose ball. (Photos by Michelle Sullivan.)