Rock Falls will emphasize defense, effort as they gain experience

With only one returning starter and most of the team simply looking to gain experience, Rock Falls will emphasize defensive effort.

Fourth-year coach Daniel Herrera said the team is coachable and doing everything right so far.

“Offense is going to catch up, for sure,” Herrera said. “Defensively is kind of where you keep yourself in a lot of ball games. ... Defense can also create some easy buckets for us.

“Everybody can play defense. Not everybody can score or do other phases of the game, but everybody can play defense. If you’re willing to put your nose in there and play tough defense, you force me as the coach to find a spot to get you in the game.”

With almost a “clean slate” to work with, Herrera has reminded the girls to be patient. Improvement may not correlate with wins and losses.

“That’s the exciting part, to watch this group improve along the way and watch them work together,” he said. “I have the utmost confidence in them, I just need them to go through the season, through some of the ups and downs and bumps and bruises and know that they can come out in the end successful.”

Senior captain Elizabeth Lombardo, the team’s lone returning starter, experienced how that process can go on the volleyball court this fall. The volleyball team also had to replace most of its experience and figure out its own identity along the way. The Rockets ended up winning a regional title.

As a point guard, Lombardo will run the offense and help get everyone on the same page, similar to her role on the volleyball court.

“I trust Elizabeth, and those girls look to her as the leader, as the senior, as the girl with the most varsity experience,” Herrera said. “She trusts her teammates and she’s willing to pick them up and make sure that everybody is kind of staying on course there.”

Rock Falls also will need a good effort to overcome what it lacks in size. Its tallest player, 6-foot junior Ari Reyna, will miss significant time recovering from surgery. Herrera says Autumn Weatherby, listed at 5-5, is the team’s only “true post.”

“We just have to pick up where we can,” Herrera said. “Sometimes that’s getting extra rebounds or moving a little bit better without the basketball, making it easier for our teammates, setting good screens. We’re going to need a little bit of everything. Everything that the game of basketball entails, we’re going to have to be really good at.”

Herrera said he saw glimpses of what the team can be later in the season in the first couple games. The Rockets fell to Bureau Valley 45-40 and Erie-Prophetstown 34-19.

Miley Bickett had 10 points and Lombardo had six against E-P.

“These young kids, they have a lot of energy,” Herrera said. “I just have to keep instilling in them that they have the tools and they have the skills to be able to compete with anybody. They just have to believe in themselves.”

Meet the Rockets

Coach: Daniel Herrera (4th year)

Last season: 11-22, 4-5 BNC (6th)

Returning starter: Elizabeth Lombardo, 5-2, sr., PG

Other top returner: Autumn Weatherby, 5-5, sr., F

Key varsity newcomers: Miley Bickett, 5-5, fr., sg; Ashley Rodriguez, 5-5, fr., G; Averie Payne, 5-6, fr., F; Julia Renner, 5-6, so., G; Abi Cochran, 5-6. so., F; Addison McCallister, 5-6, jr., G; Ari Reyna, 6-0, jr., C; Abby Schofield, 5-2, sr., G

Worth noting: Coach Daniel Herrera says the team will lean on its defense first this season as a mostly young team looking for experience. It will also need to learn how to defend taller players with center Ari Reyna expected to miss significant time due to injury.

“I’m excited to watch this young group mature in every aspect of the game throughout this season. They are talented and coachable kids, and as a program we need to know it may take a little more time and patience to get to where we want to be,” Herrera said. “In most cases some players have no high school basketball experience [on the team]. With all that being said, there will be no shortcuts, no excuses to not play hard and no reason we don’t compete every night for our teammates.”