ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Hub varsity basketball team entered the 2021-22 season with high expectations including over 20 wins as well as Interstate 8 Conference and IHSA Regional titles. But after losing three consecutive games at the E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic in Marengo and finishing 2021 with a 5-8 record, head coach Tim Thompson took those aspirations off the table.

2022 was a much different story for the Hubs, who went 17-3 over their final 20 games of the season and completed one of the greatest midseason turnarounds Thompson has seen since he began coaching at RTHS in the early 2000s. With a greater emphasis on playing team basketball, Rochelle rallied to achieve each of its three preseason goals, finishing with a 22-11 overall record while winning the Interstate 8 and defeating rival Sterling for the regional title.

“We were doing a lot of soul searching and we were trying to figure out what needs to be done in order for us to be where we want to be,” Thompson said. “We stopped talking about conference titles and regional titles and we wanted to just start playing good basketball. We challenged our seniors to turn their season around and they came back after six days off and they went nuts. We went on a roll and it was really magical how we finished off our season.”

The 2021-22 season was a historic season for the Hubs, who not only won a conference championship for the first time since 2012 and a regional championship for the first time since 2009, but totaled the most victories in a season for any Rochelle team since 2005. Several seniors led the way for the Hubs including First-Team All-Conference honorees Adam Kemp and Ryan Simmons, who was also named Interstate 8 Conference Player of the Year.

“We saw so much growth from Ryan this season,” Thompson said. “We’ve talked about his potential but he really turned the corner this season. When we moved him to the point guard, he was very unselfish and he took over when we needed him to. Ryan was fantastic for us all season and he deserved Player of the Year. All of our seniors were tremendous for us this season and they put so much work in over the last four years to become who they are today.”

Rochelle will lose seven seniors from the varsity roster this season including All-Conference Honorable Mention winners Noah Brown and Tanner Lager as well as Zach Sanford, Forrest Gerber and Cooper Hasz. The Hubs will return a small number of varsity players including juniors Raul Aguirre, David Gerber and sophomore Eli Luxton, who each earned significant varsity minutes. Juniors Landon DeLille, Aidan Darby, Colton O’Rorke are also eligible to return.

“I thought Raul played really well at the end of the season and we felt like there were times that we didn’t give him the ball enough,” Thompson said. “I think our offense will have to run through Raul next season and he’ll need anywhere from 15-to-20 touches each game. Eli really came into his own and he had a great regional championship game. David stepped up earlier in the season and proved that he could play defense the way we wanted to and he made some big shots. Colton, Landon and Aidan will have the first shake at getting in the lineup next year.”