Tim Thompson knows his varsity basketball team will have a new identity this coming season, but he and his players are already working hard to forge that identity during summer workouts that include morning shooting sessions, Hub Power weight training and evening summer camp sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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ROCHELLE — Tim Thompson knows his varsity basketball team will have a new identity this coming season, but he and his players are already working hard to forge that identity during summer workouts that include morning shooting sessions, Hub Power weight training and evening summer camp sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Rochelle will be seeking to replace six seniors who graduated this past year including First-Team All-Conference honoree Angel Aguirre as well as guards Riley Lodico, Noah Griffith, Noah Mershon and forwards Blake Albers and Komla Gati. While there will be many new faces this coming season, Thompson is confident that the Hubs will be prepared for the upcoming year.
“It’s going to be a different group,” Thompson said. “There are a lot of young players moving into their junior years that will be competing with players returning for their senior years. We’ve had good turnouts at shooting and we’re doing a lot of learning how to play together… Becoming familiar with one another is going to be the most important thing.”
Fundamentals, competition and shooting drills are some of the key skills Thompson and his coaches are looking to hone with their players this summer. Rochelle has gone 36-19 over the last two seasons (20-8 in 2016 and 16-11 in 2017) and the Hubs will be seeking their third straight year with a positive record this winter.
“We want to be as competitive as we can,” Thompson said. “What we did defensively last year, we probably won’t be doing the same thing this year… We may be moving more to a zone defense and we’ve been working on that this summer. We’re going to do different things this year with the skill sets that some of our guys have.”
Rochelle will continue to rely on First-Team All-Conference player Johnny Beck this coming year, and other rising seniors Thompson said have been improving over the summer are Noah Knight, Isaac Green and Kaleb Ackland. The Hubs will need contributions from their younger players, however, and Thompson said he’ll be looking for rising juniors Austin Brown, Seth Gould, Landan Martin and rising sophomore Garrett Burdin to work hard this summer.
“The younger guys are going to play a lot of quality minutes,” Thompson said. “They’re going to be seasoned right away and they’ve seen some tough competition in the Rockford Summer League this summer. They know the sophomore level will be different from the varsity level.”
