ROCHESTER, Mich. (WXYZ) — What does it take to have a successful season? You’ve got to have talent, of course, hard work and a little bit of luck, and for the Rochester boy’s basketball team, they also have a bond developed over years of playing together. Now, they’re off to one of the best starts in program history.
Chemistry is a word we like to throw out all the time without any actual meaning, but for the Falcons, it’s the reason for their ascension.
“A lot of us three years, a lot of us two years, second years coming back. It really does make us play better, makes us work better kind of knowing what’s going to happen, where everyone’s going to go,” said Andrew Smith, a senior on the team.
Last season, Rochester won the district title for the first time in more than a decade, but two years before that, they won five games total.
“I think it’s just building season by season, and this season is just a perfect storm of all of it coming together,” said Luke Lower, a fellow senior.
It’s come together in a real way for this squad, as they’re off to a 10-0 start, but thinking beyond just a winning streak.
“We brought back a lot of guys and I just think that makes a big difference too. Everyone returning, everyone knows their role, everyone on this team expected us to be good this season. After last season, everyone knew the goal coming in,” Smith said.
“We don’t really focus on the win streak. Sometimes, I don’t even know what our record is… but we don’t get any credit for the last game — we’re always looking forward to the game right in front of us,” head coach Nick Evola said.
While there’s still a lot of work to do to reach the ultimate goal this year, the Falcons are not only focused on taking it one game at a time but also doing it as a team.
"I think probably the best thing to me is that these guys are unselfish. I look at the recap of a game or I watch a game and it's always a different leading scorer," said Josh Wrinkle, the Rochester principal.
"This team more than any team I've been a part of, truly no one cares who scores. Some games, some people have 20, the other, they'll have two and they're just as happy," Lower said.
