Suburban Life boys basketball notes: Vince Dockendorf’s steady play a good sign for Riverside-Brookfield

Riverside-Brookfield senior Vince Dockendorf is accustomed to playing key positions in sports.

He played shortstop for several seasons before earning the starting point guard spot for the Bulldogs this season.

“With shortstop, you are in the middle of everything and a lot of balls go to you,” Dockendorf said. “There’s a lot of action. At point guard, you have the ball in your hands the most. You also impact the game the most. I love being a leader. I like to be running things and in control and directing guys. It helps build chemistry.”

The Bulldogs (6-4, 4-0) have some ground to make up to extend their streak to three straight seasons of 26 wins, but Dockendorf’s steady play is a good sign right before the holiday tournament season. He exploded for a career-high 18 points against Ridgewood.

“Vince really played well against teams that pressured the basketball,” R-B coach Mike Reingruber said. “Vince has done a good job of handling the ball, including in the full court. He’s a good shooter and had a huge game against Ridgewood. We knew coming in that he would more than likely be our starting point guard. He’s a very coachable kid and wants to be really good.

Reingruber said the Bulldogs need little more time to find their groove, but the upcoming Jack Tosh should be a good litmus test for his team. Senior guard Danny Loftus exploded for 44 points in Wednesday’s blowout win over Elmwood Park.

“I feel like there’s definitely a lot of room for us to grow,” Reingruber said. “We’ve competed well in portions of games against some top teams, but we need to put four quarters together, which I know we’re capable of doing. We need to figure out who are our run stoppers (on defense), come together and battle hard. We’ve gotten better offensively sharing the ball and our halfcourt defense is good. We’re near the halfway point. It will really see where we are at. We’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas, but now we have to come together and win games against teams on our schedule who are ranked in that next echelon.”

The 5-foot-9 Dockendorf said he gained confidence early quality minutes for last season’s conference championship team.

“I started off little slow, would go into a game and hit a few shots and do pretty well but I had to work my way up throughout the year,” Dockendorf said. “I just tried to beat guys in practice and work really hard to get more playing time. I knew I had to be ready for this year. I put up shots every day and was in the weight room, along with the stuff we do for our high school (team). The main thing was to take care of the ball and not turn the ball over. I’ve increased my (shooting) range and quickness and shooting quicker.”

Dockendorf said the Bulldogs’ tough schedule taught him many important lessons that he hopes will round his game into shape by the playoffs.

“I’ve definitely learned I’m able to handle all this pressure,” he said. “Right now, I know I have to pick it up and make sure I’m mentally right to handle the pressure to get our offense going.

York preparing for Jack Tosh

The 50th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic tips off next week on December 26th at York High School.

The annual tourney is one of the highlights of the basketball season because of the depth and diversity of the well-rounded tournament.

York coach Mike Dunn said the tournament is slated to be filled with several quality first-round matchups. Lake Zurich, Timothy Christian and Christ The King are new entries this season.

“When you look at the depth of it, I think it’s the best tournament of the state,” Dunn said. “It’s not as top heavy as Pontiac, but there’s great balance from top to bottom, especially when you look at the first-round games. There are several fantastic games, which make it the best tournament in the state. We’re expecting great games and great competition.”

The Dukes (4-4, 0-2 West Suburban Silver) play at Proviso West and Lake Zurich this week before opening up the Jack Tosh against Minooka at 8 p.m. on the 26th.

“We continue to be a work on progress,” Dunn said. “We lost eight seniors from last year’s sectional final team and then had several kids who had not played a lot last year. We have a very inexperienced group and some of our key younger kids are football kids, so they missed the first month of the season because they played in the state championship game. We’re working our way back, molding our team into what we thought they would be. We had our first full week of practice together.

“We’re making gradual improvements as a group. The football kids are working to get into basketball shape.”

Dunn noted the improvement of several players, most notably junior forward Hunter Stepanich, a three-sport athlete who also plays football and volleyball

“Hunter was our sixth or seventh man last year on our team,” Dunn said. “He might be the best three-sport athlete I’ve ever coached in my high school career, boys or girls. He’s very coachable and a winner. He’s been a part of successful teams. James DeCicco has also done some good things for us this year. He didn’t play much as a junior last year, but he’s played really well this year. Eddy Sica has worked back into basketball shape and played spot bench off the bench last year, but he’s worked his way into the starting lineup.”

Tidbits: Two West Suburban Silver teams were knocked from the ranks of the unbeatens Friday.

Hinsdale Central (6-2, 2-1) and Downers Grove North (8-0, 1-0) are set to battle in a key early season West Suburban Silver game on Friday. Glenbard West (8-0, 2-1) is currently in first place in the division…Lemont junior Gabe Sularski had a big game against Marian Catholic last Saturday, leading the team in scoring (21), rebounding (14) and (3)

against Marian Catholic.