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01/18/2023 08:59 AMCamaraderie through competition within the sporting world can be a great source of success. That adage rings true for Rocco Lombardi, as he has developed many court colleagues in his lengthy tenure on the hardwood.
The East Haven basketball team’s senior captain and power forward/center has played on the floor and the baseball diamond for his whole life. After playing Biddy, travel, and middle school hoops, Rocco joined the Yellowjackets his freshman year before his rookie campaign was cut short due to injury. Yet Rocco persisted through the pain and has stayed with the squad.
Cut to this winter, where Rocco has been an invaluable presence in the paint, pushing East Haven halfway to the eight-win threshold to qualify for states with four victories in the club’s first eight contests.
“A big part of basketball for me has been making relationships with people around me, from my high school coaches to my middle school coaches,” says Rocco, who also plays baseball for East Haven in the springtime. “My dad also coached me during my Biddy basketball days, too. Building those relationships has helped me stay on track with basketball. When I was young, all of my friends played basketball, so I started to enjoy it, and I took it more seriously through the years.”
Rocco sits as one of seven seniors on this year’s edition of the Yellowjackets’ squad. He notes that while it has been a bit of a transition moving into that leadership role as a final-year member following an even more senior-laden club last winter, it has certainly been a smooth one.
“It was a really big swing for me to step up as a senior this year because we had so many seniors on last year’s team,” Rocco says. “I feel I have stepped up, but we also have a bunch of other seniors that have stepped up, too, to help lead the team.”
As he mentions that he is a smaller big man on an East Haven club that is still a scrappy bunch, Rocco details that his knowledge of the sport through his tenured basketball career and ability to positively apply new tidbits has aided him well.
“My height is a hard part of playing my position; I am about 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10,” says Rocco. “We are one of the smaller teams in the SCC. Yet knowing the game gives me an advantage, and I take criticism very well, which helps me. We are an undersized team, so [Head Coach Frank Lyon] tells us to just put a body on someone and box them out.”
Conversely, Rocco’s range has bolstered his abilities from long range when it comes to firing the rock toward the twine. He adds that when he posts up against some of the SCC’s bigs on a nightly basis, Rocco can run to the outside to venture where they will not.
“When facing up against taller big men, not a lot of them can shoot from the outside,” says Rocco. “So when a guy I am matched up against does not come out, I just love having that advantage of being able to shoot toward the basket.”
East Haven Head Coach Frank Lyon proclaims that Rocco rouses up great leadership skills on and off the floor as a teammate and mentor—making the decision all that much easier to name him as one of the four captains for the Yellowjackets.
“Rocco is an incredible leader, and he is a lead-by-example guy,” says Lyon. “He is a glue guy to the team; he holds everyone together. He has played in meaningful spots this year, especially on defense. He galvanizes the troops to get them to do what they need to do. He also offers his time during study hall to help the younger guys with schoolwork. He is a fun kid to be around. He has a good personality and a bright future.”
Each season, a singular team has its own unique identity that can take time to discover over the course of a given campaign. Rocco retorts that East Haven is well on its way to seeing their collective self, and, in the process, the Yellowjackets have captured victories over a bitter adversary and claimed a tournament title.
“We faced Branford on the road earlier this year and beat them, which was huge since they are our rival,” Rocco says. “We also won a holiday tournament in December [at Grasso Tech against the host and Wheeler], which was another big moment for us. Towards the start of this year, we hit some bumps in the road with a newer team. As the year has gone on, we are slowly building team chemistry. I feel we will be well-rounded towards the end of the season.”
As Rocco is in the mindset of his final foray on the floor prior to traversing to the field as a first baseman during baseball season, he is focused toward finishing things on a high note both athletically and academically.
“I want to graduate high school this year with good grades, and I want to go into sports management in college,” says Rocco. “I want us to make states for basketball this season and then also for baseball in the spring. We will be a well-rounded team for baseball because we did not lose much from last year.”