Coming into the season I did not have a certain number of wins that I was looking for. I just wanted to make sure we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”

Jon Gehm

ROCHELLE — Jon Gehm said his focus during his first season as head coach of the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity basketball team was to ensure the girls were playing their best basketball at the end of the season. Despite injuries down the stretch, the Lady Hubs still managed to take home a win in regional play and concluded the season with double-digit victories once again.

Rochelle finished with a 13-18 overall record and a 2-8 record in the Interstate 8 this season. The Lady Hubs tipped off the season with a third-place finish in the Oregon Invitational and secured conference victories over LaSalle-Peru and Ottawa. Rochelle reached the IHSA 3A Regional Semifinals after a dominant win over Plano in the opening round earlier this month.

“Coming into the season I did not have a certain number of wins that I was looking for,” Gehm said. “I just wanted to make sure we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season. I felt that we were well on our way to that prior to some injuries taking place. The girls really came a long way and I was really happy with that progress... This offseason is really important for our program. The offseason is where individuals have the best opportunity to improve their skills.”

The Lady Hubs rostered a varsity lineup filled with seniors including Alivia Henkel, who led the team with 16.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.9 steals per game this season. Among Rochelle’s senior athletes who will depart from the program after this season are starting guards Sydney Tabor and Kara Martinez as well as reserve forward Kennedy Adamski and reserve guards Loretta Atkinson, Megan Seebach, Kylie Smith, Anna Toczylowski and Bailey Vondergathen. 

“I felt that whenever we did the little things offensively, such as spacing the floor and moving well without the basketball, we had a great flow to our offense and our shooters really improved as the season went on,” Gehm said. “I also thought when we made it our focus, we were great in the open floor. Our fast break was our best offense throughout the season. Defensively, while we were inconsistent, I thought our ability to stay in front of good ball handlers really improved and we were really effective at forcing turnovers when we were committed to ball pressure.”

Although the Lady Hubs will be losing the majority of their varsity players, Rochelle will have some notable players eligible to return. Those players include sophomore guard Jaydin Dickey as well as junior forwards Kendyl Darby and Abby Metzger. Junior reserves Payton Cesarone, Emma Kennay, Erin Murphy and Riley Doyle are also eligible to return. JV players such as Makayla Lara, Carmela Bright, Rose Luxton and Kyler Dickson could step into varsity roles.

“We are going to spend a lot of time focusing on shooting and ball handling to prepare for next season,” Gehm said. “We need to greatly improve in those areas to be consistently competitive in this conference. We will always have high expectations and goals, including winning a regional. However, it is important for us to take it one day at a time and just get better each and every day. If we do that over the course of the year, we will be happy with the results at the end.”