Head Varsity Basketball Coach Jon Rotz ‘92 just finished his first year coaching the Jesuit basketball team.

“Last year was a challenge, just like every year,” Coach Rotz said. “There were a lot of young players. We tried to get them minutes while also getting them experience.”

The team started playing well during the second part of league play. Before then, they were struggling because they did not have a lot of experience playing together as a team.

“It was really impressive and I’m thankful that everybody stuck together and kept battling,” Coach Rotz said.

They have a simple practice schedule for an upcoming game. They do warmups and individual skill work for about 30 minutes, then move to situations where they would use game related concepts.

He would like to be aggressive on offense and defense, which will allow them to not let the other team get into a rhythm by disrupting them. If a team gets in a rhythm, it is hard to stop them.

Adversity is hard to overcome, but when a team overcomes it, that is when the teammates are working well together. Adversity is important to how Jesuit plays.

“In sports you’re putting yourself in a position to face adversity either as an individual or a team,” Coach Rotz said.

He wants his team to react in a committed and connected way. That way, neither a win or a loss will get them too high or too low.

“During every type of championship you are going to face road bumps, and you have to work as a team to overcome them,” Coach Rotz said.