Another game, another loss.
Following the Blue Waves’ seventh straight loss Monday night to Smithtown East, Coach John Rossetti had no words.
The scoreboard did all the talking: Smithtown East, 74 Riverhead, 54
“I don’t have the answers,” Rossetti said. “If we had the answers we would do it.”
Asked to give an overall reaction to the game, Rossetti said “Yes, sir” but said nothing further. Silence filled the room as his head buried in his hands. The losses are clearly taking a toll on Rossetti. He’s coming off of his most successful season as a coach, leading Riverhead to their first League III championship in 16 years.
“As a coach, all you can ask your kids to do is put forth effort and I’m proud of the effort most of the game,” Rossetti said. “The players aren’t giving up, the coaches aren’t giving up, we’re going to continue to fight.”
Riverhead (0-4 League III, 1-7 overall) has sunken into an early hole. As the losses continue to pile up, the Blue Wave relevance will soon disappear, at least for this season. With all the youth, it might be time to start focusing on the future and using this season to get better for the years to come. But Rossetti refuses to admit defeat.
“Never,” Rossetti fired back. “We never give up on this season. This season is this season. We never look at next season. These kids have to finish this season because it’s not fair to the other kids on the team. There’s seniors on this team so we never look to next season.”
The biggest difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is leadership. Leadership separates the good from the great. Last year they had three seniors in the starting lineup: Ryan Bitzer, Markim Austin and Quinn Funn — all of which played integral roles down the stretch of games, keeping composure high without having to sacrifice team morale.
This year it’s absent. The Waves are hoping and praying that something goes their way instead of making it go their way. They try to push the tempo of the game to take advantage of their speed but it ends up just becoming a turnover parade. The Waves will not win a game if they commit more turnovers than made baskets.
“Without a doubt we lost some great leaders,” Rossetti said. “But that also provides opportunities for others to step up and be leaders and right now we haven’t had everyone step up.”
Another thing the Blue Waves are missing is a go-to scoring threat they can rely on to break out of scoring droughts or make key buckets in crucial stretches of the game. Last year Bitzer and Austin often bailed the team out in situations where the Waves needed a big bucket. Nobody has grasped that role as of yet though it seems one is emerging in Charles Manning.
The sophomore scored a team-high 17 points.
“I think there is potential to be that guy,” Rossetti said. “The problem is it’s hard to convince someone to be that guy. It happens over time but right now I would say Charles is probably the guy that could lead us offensively but he’s gotta embrace it.”
Ryan Ingarrozza led Smithtown East with 24 points.
The Blue Waves will play at 4 p.m in Copaigue today
“There’s no excuses out there,” Rossetti said. “We’ve got to get better.”
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