Senior leadership has Rockets winning again

Not since 1987 had the Burlington Central girls basketball team had the success it achieved in 2006-07. Conference title, school record for wins, and continued respect as the little farm school that's not so little anymore.

But graduation hit the Rockets hard and coming into this season, it would have been easy for BC coach Darlene Guyett and her team to look on this as a rebuilding year.

Three Rocket seniors wouldn't have any of that, though. And those three seniors -- Cory Bazany, Melanie Laird and Brianna Conran -- have been the catalyst behind a 6-3 start to the season, one that has seen the Rockets win three of their last four games heading into the opening round of the Woodstock/Richmond Christmas tournament on Saturday. That likely would have been 7-3 and 4 of 5 had a game against Stillman Valley not been iced out.

"I just think it's a lot of leadership on the seniors' part," said Bazany, this week's Daily Herald Player of the Week after scoring 37 points in two Central wins last week. "Me and Mel and Bri said after last year that this isn't the end. We don't want to be one of those teams that graduates five seniors and then gets bad. We have great team chemistry again. Everybody wants to work together and there are no selfish people on this team. That's the main ingredient."

Guyett agrees that team chemistry has been a key component as the Rockets try to successfully defend their Big Northern East championship.

"They all understand the importance of team and that's how we're getting it done," said Guyett, now in her fourth year as the Rockets' coach. "They work hard in practice every day and they always come focused."

Each of the three BC senior leaders has come to this point from a different direction. Bazany is the team's only returning regular starter, having averaged 11.6 points per game last year on the 23-6 squad. But Conran, who fought through mono and an ankle injury a year ago, was a role player on that team and Laird, the 5-foot-11 center, sat out her junior year with an ACL injury.

"Last year Megan (McGuire) drew a lot of double and triple teams and what Cory was able to do was a byproduct of that. This year she's become our go-to player," said Guyett of Bazany, who has a 30 ACT going for her as she goes through the college selection process.

Bazany, who played for Jim Cook's Team USA AAU squad along with Laird this summer. had to battle through an ankle injury this summer that limited her play in the Dundee-Crown summer league.

"We hit some rough spots at Dundee-Crown but then we started conditioning for the season early," said Bazany, who is averaging 12.3 points per game so far this season. "We've got dedicated people and everybody showed up. And, we practiced against guys a lot. That helped with our focus and concentration. Guys are so much quicker than girls.

Being the lone returning starter also put the leadership responsibilities squarely on Bazany's shoulders. With emerging sophomore point guard Jordan Maisto and fellow sophomore Taylor Colby joining the starting group, senior leadership became even more important.

"I love to be the leader out there," she said. "I was always a contributor. Megan McGuire was the show last year and we loved that. But playing on Team USA changed basketball totally for me. They stressed leadership and I developed a new-found love for basketball. They inspired me and I like to be able to inspire people. I see it is a challenge to get people to work harder."

Another thing that inspires Bazany on the floor is the memory of her father, Mark, who passed away earlier this year.

"My first two games were a shaky start," said Bazany, who hasn't made a college choice yet but mentioned Loras and Augustana as possibilities to study kinisieology and exercise science.

"It was rough. At halftime of one game I kind of broke down. The No. 1 thing we shared was basketball. He know how much it means to me. Every time I play basketball I think about my dad. It inspires me to do better."

Laird is one of those players who has a deep basketball background (her dad, Steve, is a former Larkin standout who also played at Wisconsin-Whitewater).

"Mel came back strong this year," Guyett said. "She played with Jim Cook's Team USA team in the summer so she got to play on that knee a lot. She was game ready when we started and she was physically strong. She loves playing with her back to the basket and she has great hands."

Laird is just happy to be back on the court.

"I'm just excited to be out there," she said. "Last year at this time I wasn't even playing."

Laird said playing this summer was paramount to her coming back to the school season strong, and now that the season is well under way she's ready to close out her career successfully.

"That definitely helped me," she said of playing for Team USA. "I don't think I'd be where I'm at right now if I hadn't done that."

She also points to team chemistry as a key to the Rockets' success so far.

"Everyone understands their roles on the team," said Laird, who leads the team at 13.8 points per game this season. "Each person knows what they have to contribute and our team chemistry is great. We talked over the summer about how we can't get the seniors back and we just have a ton of confidence in each other."

Laird says her dad's basketball career has been a driving force in her own.

"He's a huge influence," she said of Steve, who played in the Elgin Parks & Recreation Leagues for many years after college. "He's the reason I started playing basketball. Growing up I'd always go to his park district games, we'd go through his old scrapbooks and I'd always hear about his days at Larkin and Whitewater."

Conran goes with the theme: Senior leadership is why the Rockets are winning again.

"It's because the three seniors have all really stepped it up," she said. We've all done our fair share. Everybody on the team is starting to click with each other and we're getting used to each other and where we're at on the floor. We're definitely trying to achieve back-to-back conference championships and just play four quarters every night."

While Bazany, Laird and Maisto have shared the scoring load so far, Conran's contributions have been many.

"Bri does a lot of things you don't see in the scorebook," Guyett said. "She rebounds, she dishes out assists … she might be under the radar in terms of what's in the scorebook but she's a hard worker and a valuable senior contributor for us."

All told, it's a group that wants to keep Burlington Central's girls basketball program prominently on the map. And with the senior leadership the Rockets have shown so far this season there's no reason to think that won't happen.