ROCHELLE — Defense has been a clear focus for the Rochelle Hub basketball team over the early portion of the team’s summer workouts. After allowing nearly 71 points per game last season, head coach Tim Thompson and his staff are emphasizing improvement on the defensive end as Rochelle’s returning players tipped their summer off earlier this month.
The Hubs returned to the court on June 2 for the start of summer workouts, which will be held three times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 4:30 p.m. through July 1. While Rochelle has competed in summer leagues in the past, coach Jared Johnson said the focus this summer will be on controlled practices in order to build and develop continuity within the program. The Hubs are shooting for a breakthrough after back-to-back regional title losses.
“We’ve had a lot of kids playing and working out on their own,” Johnson said. “We have the majority of our kids coming back and we’re hoping to win the regional and compete for a sectional. We’re putting that on the kids and we’re holding them accountable because there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. We’re emphasizing defense… We’ve really struggled to prevent teams from scoring a lot of points over the last few years and we’ve emphasized to our kids that if we want to meet our goals next year, we have to become a better defensive team.”
Seniors Van Gerber and Brode Metzger, both entering their third years with the varsity program, are among the key returning players leading the way in summer drills for the Hubs, who finished 13-20 overall and 3-7 in the Interstate 8 Conference during the 2024-25 campaign. Offensively, Johnson said a focus this summer will be scoring inside, where returning junior forwards such as Brody Bruns and Warren Schweitzer are expected to take on key roles for the varsity group.
“We’re going to be really big with Warren and Brody, so we’re going to be playing inside out,” Johnson said. “We’re still going to play at our tempo, but I think we’ll do a little more to get those guys touches inside. Brody’s on track to score over 1,000 points and Warren’s made big strides. Most teams don’t have 6-6 or 6-8 guys who they can go to, so we’re going to lean on that.”
Junior guard Mason Ludwig and sophomore guard Cohen Haedt are two more varsity players who could see increased roles next season. Before the summer concludes and attention shifts to football and AAU basketball, Johnson said the team’s key goals are to improve continuity and skill development. The Hubs were forced to shuffle their roster throughout last season, with sophomores playing on the varsity level while freshmen played up at the sophomore level.
“We had so many kids play so many minutes at different levels that we didn’t have a lot of practice time with them,” Johnson said. “We made a decision that it was more important for us to practice, so we’re practicing and working on skills the whole summer. We’re working on getting better as a team and our focus has been on the areas we need to be better as a team.”
