PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
Making It to D1 Before & After The Transfer Portal feat. Rock Battistoni, Head Coach of Loomis Chaffee
In this episode, we connect with Coach Rock Battistoni of Loomis Chaffee to explore his remarkable journey from prep school athlete to head coach at one of the nation's top prep schools. Rock shares his experiences transitioning from D3 basketball at St. Lawrence to D1 at George Washington University, followed by his professional career in Germany. We dive into his coaching philosophy, how he navigates the complexities of today's recruiting landscape, and what makes Loomis Chaffee a premier destination for student-athletes.
đź“ŚKey Topics:
âś… Rock's transition from D3 to D1
âś… Insights from his time working in the Loomis Chaffee Admissions Office
âś… How Rock approaches coaching at Loomis Chaffee.
âś… Strategies for navigating the Transfer Portal
âś… What sets Loomis Chaffee apart in terms of academics and athletics.
#PrepSchoolBasketball #D1Basketball #AthleteDevelopment #TransferPortal #LoomisChaffee #CollegeRecruiting #BasketballCoaching #PREPAthletics #SportsEducation #D3toD1Journey
🗒️About Rock:
Rock Battistoni is the head coach at Loomis Chaffee School, where he has led the basketball program to a New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Class A Championship. A former prep school player at Salisbury, Rock went on to earn All-Conference honors at St. Lawrence University before making the transition to Division 1 basketball at George Washington University. He also played professionally in Germany before taking the helm at Loomis Chaffee.
đź”— Connect with Rock:
Email | Rock_Battistoni@loomis.org
Twitter | https://twitter.com/coachbattistoni
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-battistoni-57224b5/
Website | https://www.loomischaffee.org/athletics/teams/winter/basketball/boys
Twitter | https://twitter.com/LC_BoysBBALL
đź”— Connect with Cory:
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166
đź”– Subscribe to the PREP Athletics Podcast:
iTunes | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prep-athletics-podcast/id1546265809?uo=4
Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/6CAKbXFiIOhoHinzsReYbJ
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Cory Heitz (00:01)
Welcome to this week's episode of the PREP Athletics Podcast. From Loomis Chaffee in outside of Hartford, Connecticut, we've got Coach Rock Battistoni. Now Rock has been there for almost 10 years now and he has done something that's pretty unique, especially when at the time when he did it, but he went to prep school. He played three years at Salisbury and then went to St. Lawrence, right? D3 school in upstate New York where he was the rookie of the year in the conference. And after two seasons there,
he ended up bumping up and transferring to D1 to play at George Washington. So it helped, he grew three inches his freshman year at St. Lawrence and the game kind of clicked and he talked about what led to that click. But he talks about the transition from D3 to D1, especially back in the days when it wasn't as popular as it is now. Talked about playing professionally in Germany after that. Coaching, prep school, Single A versus Double A and Triple A, placing kids nowadays.
and much, much more. So really excited to have Coach Battistoni on the podcast. Stick around. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for tuning in.
Cory Heitz (01:30)
Rock, welcome to the podcast.
Rock Battistoni (01:33)
Thanks for having me. I really, really appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Cory Heitz (01:37)
Yeah, and appreciate you coming on too. And you went to a prep school back in your high school days. Tell me about that decision you and your family made to make that jump.
Rock Battistoni (01:47)
I did. I went to Salisbury School. So all boys, Northwest corner of Connecticut, and I grew up out that way probably 45 minutes. There is no highway to get from Morris, Connecticut to Salisbury. But yeah, I went there as a repeat 10th grader from public school to prep really kind of when prep school started to take off a little bit in terms of, you know,
having this level of basketball and being in an academic environment where there's a lot of structure to it, it really started to, I think, gain some ground in the late 90s or so. But it was the right fit for me, the perfect situation for me. So.
Cory Heitz (02:42)
And how'd you find out about Salisbury? Was someone helping you? Or did you hear about it from a friend or a coach?
Rock Battistoni (02:47)
I think it was more, I can remember like hearing about it, but it was kind of like taking a look at it and my folks being like, this is the perfect place for you. That's how it happened. That's how it happened. I think, and maybe my folks had a family friend whose son went there, but that necessarily wasn't, you know, the determining factor for me to land at Salisbury.
It was a number of factors and it was the right place for me. And we didn't, it's not like how it is now. We have maybe, you know, folks who may look at a bunch of schools. It was kind of like, let's go take a look and then you're going to go there. And that's it.
Cory Heitz (03:27)
how many years we had solid very. Okay. And what are the big things you took away from your experience there?
Rock Battistoni (03:29)
So I was three years. I did three years.
Man, so much. I mean, it's an incredible place. And like I said, it was the perfect place for me to grow as a young man and as a player and as a student. I mean, what I take away most now is like the relationships that I was able to create. I mean, my roommate, we lived together for three years. He was an LA kid who ended up going to Tulane. He was an incredible player and just a great dude.
And maintaining those connections still and being in that network was really what I still take away from being there. It was incredible.
Cory Heitz (04:16)
upon graduation from Salisbury, you chose to go to Sarah Lawrence. And what was your thinking on choosing that school, Rock?
Rock Battistoni (04:24)
St. Lawrence, actually, St. Lawrence. No.
Cory Heitz (04:25)
Saint -Law.
Rock Battistoni (04:28)
Well, it's, you know, like any 6'6" soaking wet, 175 pound kid. I, I had, I remember being like on the radar, some Division I spots, and having some potential, but really on my, on my team, I was like the fifth option, maybe even the sixth option, but a starter, because we had my roommate who was unbelievable. And then we had a kid who was actually like one of the top sophomores in the country. And I think in fact, he was, he was ranked
above Lebron James in that class. And then we had some other talent. So I wasn't necessarily like a focal point of my high school team, which was okay, but I still had been doing enough to get some schools interested from some Division I, some Patriot League places and some Mac schools and things like that. But it was different then. And where we are now, it's just, we're in a crazy place.
And I think that there were a couple other Division III schools and eventually it's like you need to make a choice. And I know I wanted to go to a really good school. I knew I wanted to get kind of far away from home and upstate New York, Canton, New York is far away from home. And Coach Downs, Chris Downs, who's still the head coach there, fought like heck to get me in.
because I was not a great student in high school, certainly beginning my high school career. And I think he saw a lot of potential in me and he believed in me. I'm still appreciative of that to this day. And St. Lawrence is an unbelievable school, like great facilities, tremendous academic profile. So that's kind of how I landed there.
Cory Heitz (06:16)
Gotcha. But the fun thing about you is you went from being sixth member on that team at Salisbury to now being Conference Player of the Year. And then you did something that was pretty rare back then. You bumped up to the D1 level to go to George Washington. Tell me how that progression goes from sixth man at a Single A prep school to rookie of the year to now mid major program. Walk me through how that happened because a lot of players now are getting recruited to D3s and the D3s are saying, Hey, we'll develop you and help you go D1 or D2.
Rock Battistoni (06:24)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cory Heitz (06:45)
You were kind of the OG at that. Talk to me about that.
Rock Battistoni (06:48)
I appreciate that praise. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I was 6 '6", 175 pounds, soaking wet and into the summer from St. Lawrence or from Salisbury to St. Lawrence, I can remember I was still playing AAU and continue to get some interest, but it was like doing another prep year. And I don't know what the rules were then. There were a couple of schools that wanted me to do another year. And I mean, I can't remember what they were.
but I was like, no, I'm going to St. Lawrence. And then I don't know, someone just clicked for me. Like it just, I can't even explain it. Like looking back on it, it was just, like this confidence that, that kicked in from an offensive standpoint, from all, all areas of the game. And I mean, right off the bat, I was able to make a certainly an impact at St. Lawrence and definitely in the league. and it was a good, it's, it still is a good league. Then it was Liberty League.
or now it's Liberty League, I can't recall. But definitely a really competitive league with good players. And I was able to certainly come out of the gate and making an impact. And again, part of that was Coach Downs, who believed in me. And then I loved my experience there, had great friends and was doing well. But I needed kind of like a shift from getting to something different.
Growing up in the middle of nowhere and going to high school in the middle of nowhere and then being up at St. Lawrence where it's pretty isolated. To be able to have the opportunity to shift to GW was like, I've got to do this and I want to do it. And it wasn't easy. And how I got there is kind of a roundabout way and a little bit funny how things work out in life. But with a new staff at GW with Coach Hobbs and Coach Pikiell
who's now obviously Steve Pikiell, the head coach at Rutgers, and Karl Hobbs, who was the head coach at GW at the time. They were new, it was a new staff and they were getting things off the ground. And there was a young crew coming in when I transferred in, so it was kind of like adding an older piece and what they thought was a mature piece to that unit. And I was, I certainly, I was. But.
It was like kind of like the perfect storm at the time for me for me to to be a GW which was I mean A10 at that time the big -time league and it still is so Yeah, and I grew four inches too. So that helped
Cory Heitz (09:17)
But Rock, did you leave?
You get three inches of St. Lawrence.
Rock Battistoni (09:22)
Yeah, I grew, I mean, I was, you know, I was showed up 6'6" and by myself when I was 6'9", you know, 225. So I can't explain that either. That's just something that happened to and I don't think it's necessarily normal. So.
Cory Heitz (09:31)
Sheesh.
But walk me through this. So the game and you're, you just told me, but I might need to ask this again. Like you said, the game just started clicking. Is it, did you put extra time in the summer? Do you have a trainer? Like what do you attribute that, that click to? Or is that that you don't know that yet either.
Rock Battistoni (09:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that I don't know anyone who had a trainer then in 1999 or 2000 or 2001. Like I don't remember any of my friends or any guys that played at AAU having a trainer. It was a lot of play. I played in a lot of summer leagues, a lot. And I would drive a great distance. I played at AAU in Boston with a team, Greater Boston at the time, which...
The head coach at Endicott, Kevin Betancourt, who went to Bucknell, like Kevin and I were on the same AAU team. And Danny Lawson, who's an assistant at UMBC. Danny was younger. Danny was on that team too. And I mean, driving at a great distance for AAU. And it was a lot of play, a lot of five on five just in this area of, I mean, again, I can remember driving all over just to find a game. But.
Cory Heitz (10:48)
Mm -hmm.
Rock Battistoni (10:49)
I honestly, I have no idea what just clicked. I really don't. I think in part of it was because I would play a lot with my roommate Wayne, who was again, he started every single game at Tulane or something crazy like that. And he still has a school record in steals and conference USA. I think he, I mean, what was the conference USA? I mean, he's up there in the record books and I think playing against him and then being in St. Lawrence. I don't, I just, again, I was just, it was like,
I can help this team, I can help lead this group. And again, it wasn't like a moment, it was just like being in it and taking advantage of it. So, and again, having coaches that believe in you are part of it too.
Cory Heitz (11:32)
Yeah, absolutely. And then so without the transfer portal being what it was, like how did the transfer to GW go to? Did you want to get out of St. Lawrence? Did you get someone that reached out to you? Was it a middleman? Was it, what was that like?
Rock Battistoni (11:43)
I don't know if I'm able to say. No. It's true. I'll put it to you this way. I mean part of transfering is believing in yourself and at that time when there's no portal and there's no social media platforms like there is now and highlight tapes and all that stuff. I mean you to put your name out there and change from schools and there was...
Cory Heitz (11:46)
Okay, if you don't feel comfortable saying it, that's okay, but I think the statute of limitations has run out too, so keep it however sanitary you need to keep it.
Rock Battistoni (12:12)
There was reason for me to do it outside of basketball and I was having a great basketball experience. Again, I love St. Lawrence and have great friends and still have great relationships with my former teammates there. But the opportunity being in DC and part of like going to school like GW was something that I, again, there was a lot of luck behind it. There was a lot of luck behind it, but it was also you got to kind of create those situations that present themselves. You've got to.
You got to go out and grab it. And I mean, it was nothing short of packing my car with a couple of bags of clothes and really going down and playing pickup for Coach Hobbs and Coach Pikes and Coach Brodus and Coach Brooks. and showing what I could do in a five on five segment to where being in the class two days later, like, and if it didn't go well, I was, I was going to hop back in my car. Like,
Cory Heitz (13:04)
Jeez, that quick.
Rock Battistoni (13:10)
That's the reality of it. So kind of betting on myself and having someone make a phone call for you and saying, hey, you should take a look at him and he can play like that's part of it too. But then you've got to go out and do the rest. And that's it.
Cory Heitz (13:24)
Let me ask you this. Yeah, you sure did. But let me ask you this. This is the last thing I'm going to peck on this because I think it's fascinating of finding out your mindset on this. But like, what happened at St. Lawrence that said, that clicked in you that said, I could play at the D1 level. Was there a game during the season where you just dominating practice? Was it something a coach said? Like, was there one moment where it switched and you're like, no, I want to try this.
Rock Battistoni (13:49)
I mean during that summer freshman sophomore year I was playing against some Division I guys where I felt I was better than who were in really good leagues and then I kind of plateaued a little bit my sophomore year and I was a little bit frustrated myself and I don't know I felt like I wasn't getting all that much better and wasn't necessarily my teammates fault or coaches fault it was just something internal with me that I was just I was I was kind of just stagnant with things and I wanted to change.
And again, was lucky to have that opportunity to change. But knowing that I'm probably not going to have the same production or same impact at a place like GW because of the jump, because of what the league was and being content with that, you know what, there's a good chance I'm not an all league player. There's a good chance that I'm not going to start every game. There's a great chance that maybe I'm never going to be the first guy off the bench, but you got to be content with that. And that was something that I had to.
to really think about and be comfortable with it and still be like, okay, well, I'm gonna go earn it. And I think I put myself in a position where being on the court and making an impact, I'm still content with how it went for me.
Cory Heitz (15:05)
What was the biggest difference you noticed between D3 and D1, both as far as programs go and style of play and physicality?
Rock Battistoni (15:12)
there was so much. There was so much like I couldn't I couldn't be in like official practices beginning of the year. I can't remember what it was. Maybe it was like it was compliance stuff. Like I couldn't remember what it was. It was like the first month and they were doing training with the strength coach and I could see what guys were going through and they're getting about five in the morning and sometimes earlier like the Coach Hobbs and.
They're really trying to get, develop a culture within the program and get us off in the right direction. And part of that is showing up on time and doing these little things. If you don't, we're going to get up at 430 and you're going to be with a strength coach and you're going to be doing up downs. Like that was part of it. And I still had to get up and do those, even though I was not able to because I wasn't cleared yet. So on the side,
because I wanted to stay in shape with the rest of the guys. I was doing my own stuff on the side to make sure when I was in it that I wasn't falling behind in any way. So that was the biggest difference, like the level of commitment, like just the where they were trying to get the program in that direction and the direction that they wanted things to go in. And I mean, there were some awesome players there too.
awesome players and really good, talented, younger players where you can see, hey, if we get things going next couple of years, we're going to really do something special. And I think that we did. And it's something that really, I think, is hard for programs nowadays because a lot of those guys maybe would have transferred.
Cory Heitz (16:58)
That's right. What was the best part playing D1 and the worst part?
Rock Battistoni (17:02)
and there's so many good parts. It was, it was really terrific. And again, being with a group of guys where, I mean, we won Atlantic 10 in 2005 and, and some of the guys in the team Pops Mensah-Bonsu who who's, you know, working as a, as a, in the G league right now, I think with the Knicks. and then Mike Hall was in the NBA and J .R. Pinnock and Carl like,
Carl Elliott, TJ Thompson was terrific and TJ's an assistant at Rutgers and it was just a Chris Monroe is the leading scorer, all -time leading scorer in GW's history. He was there the first year of the year I'd sit out. So just being around like unbelievable players, like that was part of it. During the summer there was pickup where there was some pros coming in. I mean, Richard Hamilton and Ray Allen and Laron Profit and...
I mean, it was was it was Rod Strickland it was awesome. Like it was just great to be in that space and being at GW was terrific. And, the hardest part is that it can be cruel. Like I was hurt and it's hard to get back on the floor. And I started, I don't know, five, seven games in my, in my two years of eligibility, which, which getting to, you know, I was starting my first game I ever played against that at, at St. Lawrence was against, SUNY Potsdam.
And then all of a sudden, the first game I started GW was against West Virginia. Like there's a lot in between that. So I'm certainly, even at that time, I was like, I was fired up, of course, like anyone would be. And then you got to hold onto it. And then when you get hurt and guys get better, I mean, things happen. That's the reality of Division I athletics. So, but I wouldn't trade it. I would not trade it.
Cory Heitz (18:51)
Yeah, and what a great experience. Let's go back to St. Lawrence. What was the best and worst parts of playing at the D3 level?
Rock Battistoni (19:00)
The best parts for me personally, I had great teammates. It was awesome. And I think there was far more room for me to make mistakes and learn from them. I think in Division I, you maybe have a little bit more of a quick hook. And Coach Downs was really, really patient with me. And I think, hopefully, I made it easy for him my freshman year. But great teammates. And I think the league was really competitive.
I think one of the worst parts, I don't know. I can't necessarily pinpoint a worst part about it. I mean, one time we got stuck in a snowstorm between Canton, New York and getting to play at Williams and we were stuck in upstate New York on the road for hours. And then we didn't get to play at Williams until it was like 9 p So that was a tough game to play, a tough game to win. And...
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, there's different parts to it. Like the travel at Division three is totally different than the travel at Division I at that time. it was just so many, so many different pieces to it. So.
Cory Heitz (20:09)
A lot of bus time. Okay. Wow. Okay. Well, after GW, you then played professionally overseas. Tell me about that experience.
Rock Battistoni (20:10)
Yeah, a lot of van time, not even bus, a lot of van time.
Yeah, it was great. I actually because I from my injuries, I had to have a surgery. So then I worked at Cushing Academy for a year where I coached. I coached JV basketball and JV baseball and I taught history and it was great. And I was I was going to stay at Cushing because they hired me to be the head coach at at, I don't know, 24 years old, which looking back on that, I'm glad I did not.
Cory Heitz (20:28)
cool.
Rock Battistoni (20:48)
fully take that position on because I think knowing what prep school is right now, I think it would have been tough for me. Not having the experience that I was able to gain, you know, 10 years later. But then I went to play and it was terrific. And, you know, a team is going to take a chance on you, you know, being a guy who was hurt and had not a huge impact on a Division I roster but was still on a really good team. But it was terrific. It was great.
It really was, but as a player, then you see kind of the writing on the wall. It's like, how much further could you go? And there's certain decisions that you got to make. And yeah, I would have liked to play till I was 35, but would have been worth it. I don't know.
Cory Heitz (21:33)
Where'd you play overseas what country?
Rock Battistoni (21:35)
I was in Germany.
Cory Heitz (21:36)
What was the best part and worst part of playing pro in Germany?
Rock Battistoni (21:40)
I remember being in gyms and there were people like smoking in the gym. That was tough. and one of the best part is you see, I saw things that were not, I hadn't seen here in the States. Like one of my teammates would drink Coca -Cola on the bench. Like that was not, I had never seen that before. but we were running, doing a lot of actions still that you like see right now that I hadn't been running. I hadn't been, I haven't even, I wasn't even exposed to at GW.
So that was pretty cool. So yeah, but it was a lot of fun.
Cory Heitz (22:17)
Right. And now you're the head coach at Loomis J .P. How long you been there?
Rock Battistoni (22:21)
So just finishing up my ninth year.
Cory Heitz (22:24)
Awesome. So tell people that don't know about your school, like a little bit about Loomis Chaffee, what you're looking for in players, what kind of program you're running. Give us the elevator pitch.
Rock Battistoni (22:34)
I mean, Loomis is an amazing place and the location of the school is terrific. Being right in the center of right in between New York and Boston and being 15 minutes away from Hartford. We're a school of 740 kids. So this is like a mini college campus and our facilities are incredible. The campus really is like a like a college campus. And I always say it's kind of like the best of both worlds because you feel like you're like isolated at a boarding school. But we're right in the center of town where you can walk to town.
and go to a grocery store and go to a coffee shop, there's a CVS, there's things like that. So it's really easy to get to being 10 minutes from the airport. And again, you've got this college feel and really everything is here for kids to be successful. They're able to find that balance of their studies and their gym time while also continuing to grow as young people because this is not college athletics.
you're working toward becoming a college athlete and that's the whole point. but I'm a little bit biased. I think, I think Loomis is, before I got to Loomis, I was at Cheshire and I always saw Loomis as a place where like, man, they could be awesome. and, and I think that, we've gotten to a point where we had some terrific players and we won New England championship. And I think that, we get everyone's best effort, whether it's a.
AAA school in Timor or whether if we were playing a Class C school, I think we would get everyone's best effort. And I like that. I like that.
Cory Heitz (24:12)
Yeah, thanks for sharing that. We're going to play a fun game now and I'm going to name three alum from your school and you tell me if you know them or not and what they do. Okay. No pressure. George Schultz.
Rock Battistoni (24:20)
Yeah.
Of course, yeah. He worked in the Reagan administration and actually he coached or he played basketball here at Loomis.
Cory Heitz (24:34)
Yeah, US Secretary of State back in that administration. Perfect. John D. Rockefeller III.
Rock Battistoni (24:36)
Yeah, Secretary Seaton.
cheese. Right, I don't know what the Rockefeller the third had accomplished. We do have Rockefeller quad as part of our campus. I'm not exactly sure what he what he accomplished from a business standpoint.
Cory Heitz (24:42)
There's a third, second, first.
Yeah, I don't either. It's a Rockefeller, so cool to put him down there. And then last one, Katherine Waterson.
Rock Battistoni (25:07)
man, you got me there.
Cory Heitz (25:08)
Okay, she's an actress. She's been in Steve Jobs. She's been in Alien Covenant, Fantastic Beasts, and her dad is Sam Waterson from Law and Order. So...
Rock Battistoni (25:16)
okay. I think I want to say someone was talking about that in the office not too long ago. So, okay.
Cory Heitz (25:23)
Every prep school if you go go Wikipedia has a baseball player, a hockey player, some NFL player, it might be from the 1920s, but I left those out. But anyway, that was this week's edition of Famous Alumni from the prep school we're talking to. So thank you for playing Rock. Are there any other names you want to mention of like notable people that have gone through there that kind of on top of your head?
Rock Battistoni (25:29)
Yup. Yup. Yup.
Yeah, terrific.
I mean, our most notable is Henry Kravis, who just made a very, very generous donation to the school. And he's probably the most well -known alum of Loomis Chaffee. Yeah.
Cory Heitz (25:58)
What's he do? Where do you get his, his mind?
Rock Battistoni (26:02)
He's in finance. He started what's called KKDOT.
Cory Heitz (26:04)
Okay.
Great, great. Tell me you work in admissions and what's the benefit of being the basketball coach and working in the admission office?
Rock Battistoni (26:13)
Benefits, I mean, I think it's being able to meet families here and being able to tour them around and I think always being able to offer a central point of meeting in the admissions office and, you know, walking around campus from there. And absolutely, you know, guiding families through the process and understanding what the process is here.
from starting out with the inquiry and getting application in and how things work then on the back end. And families who are applying for financial aid, like being able to guide families through that and being in the admissions office is always a little bit easier than maybe a coach who's not in the admissions office. But we're in a great position as a school with 2 ,500 applications. So from around the globe.
So we get a really diverse applicant pool and that definitely is also, I could speak to that certainly for basketball too. I mean, we get kids interested from all over the world too, just like a lot of private schools do as well. So.
Cory Heitz (27:23)
And what are some tips you can give? Like, obviously, if you're coming through the basketball, that's great. If you got talent in the court and you got decent grades. But in general, like, what makes a package or what characteristics does a kid have on top of basketball and grades that might make them appealing to a school like yours?
Rock Battistoni (27:38)
well, I think that.
What's appealing about Loomis, okay, is, as I spoke to before, is location of the school, the campus itself, like when people come and walk around here, it's an amazing place. And our facility, our gym is incredible. And our weight room with our strength coaches is an incredible space. Like that stuff, I think, definitely maybe surprises a lot of people who have never been here to campus before and are just learning about the process.
or if they've been to another school, then they come here and they're like, my goodness, like this is incredible. That happens quite often. It happens quite often. And then from the academic standpoint, it's all dependent on when a student is planning to enter in, like being a post -grad is very different than entering as a 10th grader. Just from a core standpoint, a grad requirement standpoint, it's very different. A post -grad, it's...
Certainly, basketball is a big factor, but it's also what do they want to get out of it from an academic standpoint and getting kids to start to think that way. For 10th graders coming through, it's more about what am I going to be in my junior year? What am I taking my senior year if I reclass, things like that. So it's always different conversations with families, depending on what entry point that they plan on applying for.
But the campus itself, I mean, it's in a lot of ways, it's, again, it's an incredible place. So I feel lucky.
Cory Heitz (29:12)
Yeah, but let me re -state that question. When you're looking at candidates trying to come to Loomis, like on top of basketball and top of academics, what other traits are you looking for at Loomis of the applications you're getting? What's like, this kid checks all these boxes. We're going to go after him hard. Tell us the people that are listening on top of basketball and academics, what else a kid can bring to get on your radar?
Rock Battistoni (29:29)
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, you have to love to play. I mean, as a basketball coach, I want to coach guys who love to play. And everyone might say, I think I'm a divisional player. That's where I want to be at. But it's like, do you really love it? Because you have to to get to that level. You have to want to get in the gym by yourself. Like,
It's great to get in with your trainer. It's great to get in with an assistant. It's great to get in with me, but you have to be willing to get in by yourself and and get up 200 shots between class like again, it comes back to to what? What do you want to get out of this game? I think that that's really important and it's that's something I say that a lot of kids can't answer a 9th grade 14, 15, 16 year old kid. They just they love to play, which is great.
But do you really love all, do you love all aspects of it? Do you love doing things that you don't necessarily, you're not good at doing right now? Like that's part of it. So those are questions that I always ask. But I feel like I've been really lucky. We've had kids who are gym rats. We've had kids who love to play. And I've always loved guys with length. I think that...
If you look at our college placement of guys who are six sizes above, it's pretty incredible. And at the same time, we've had guards who are tough and can make plays. But really, I think I've always been a little bit biased toward guys with size. But it's also hurt us a little bit when we've played teams where it's a tough defensive matchup for us. But we've had a lot of success with.
you know, your undersized guards or undersized forwards too. But it all comes back to like your motor and how much you love to play and how much you're willing to get better. So it's really, it's finding those guys and trying to get some of those questions answered when they're here on campus and maintaining, having those discussions. And it's not just one discussions. It's not just one chat on the phone. It's multiple. So it's never easy and kids definitely do have choices nowadays, which is great.
And it's definitely helped the prep game and it's helped a lot of kids. So it's also finding the kids who see Loomis as a place that they really want to be at.
Cory Heitz (32:06)
Gotcha. And then what does it take for a guard to play at the D1 level these days?
The reason I ask that is there's so many guards out there that reach out to you and me and that's a majority of teams and a lot of them want to go D1. So.
Rock Battistoni (32:17)
Yeah.
Yeah, unfortunately, right? Six foot guards, they grow on trees, right? So how do you separate yourself? And one of the things that I've always talked about with.
guards of that size. It was like, I once played pick up GW with a guy named Shanta Rogers. Okay. And Shanta was an incredible player. Sweet 16 with GW. I saw him defend full court the entire two hours of pickup, pickup basketball, defending full court. That is a huge separator. Like that stuff gets noticed if you're a college coach on the sideline, like who is willing to defend.
Full -court like you a lot of guys can shoot a lot of guys can dribble There's some incredible passers a lot of guys can talk, but are you willing like to defend full -court? Full -court like I had never seen that before It was like mid -july like who would do that mid -july pick up? He would so my advice to any guard at that 6 -2 or below do something that nobody else is doing and You don't see a lot of guys doing stuff like that
And you can't necessarily practice defending full court. You can get in shape and work on your strength and work on your endurance. But do you want to do that in a game? It's tough.
Cory Heitz (33:39)
That's a lot of this. That's a lot of heart right there. Yeah.
Rock Battistoni (33:42)
But that's a separator. That is a huge separator. That stuff, it gets noticed. It gets noticed.
Cory Heitz (33:49)
All right, walk me through this in admissions. So when you have a ninth grade class coming in, you've got X amount of beds for them. Probably it just changes a little bit year to year, but as far as, you know, a 10th grader coming in, 11th grader coming in, every class 12th, a post -grad, like how do you determine how many beds are available for each class? Is that determined by how many kids leave each year or do you add a couple of beds each year to each class to take kids coming in in different grades?
Rock Battistoni (34:15)
Well, luckily I never have to crunch those numbers. That's for my, our Dean of Enrollment and Director of Admissions. They get to look at all that stuff. But I mean, how it does work, yeah, it's the amount of kids that are graduating and the size of the current class. And usually a typical ninth grade class at Loomis is going to fall between 100 and 120 students. And then depending on what that number is, it's like we can add this many sophomores.
this many juniors and then this many post grads. So every your class is getting added to which is dependent on how much what that number looks like year to year. But in all a typical graduating class at Loomis is going to be somewhere between 200 and 210, 212 students.
Cory Heitz (35:05)
So you're adding a lot during the four years kids come in as freshmen. They're getting new classmates every year then. Interesting. Okay.
Rock Battistoni (35:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have a day student population too, so our day students, we're 30 % day student at Loomis just because of where we're located with West Hartford and Avon and Glastonbury and Long Meadow Mass. It's again, it's very easy to get to within 30 minute drive time. Even if you're sitting through some traffic in Hartford, which is definitely possible, but it's definitely a delicate balance for our admissions office with the amount of
available beds on campus than with our day student population because Lumis used to be a school 50 -50. So, and with adding dormitories, it was a shift from being 70 -30, 70 % boarding, 30 % day student. So, it's never easy because we always have tremendous applicants and a great applicant pool to choose from, from all sports, all walks of life, all interests.
Cory Heitz (35:53)
Gotcha. Now...
Rock Battistoni (36:05)
So it's definitely, it's hard for us, but we know it's even harder for families too.
Cory Heitz (36:11)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks for sharing that. Loomis is Single A and a question families ask me a lot is like, well, shouldn't we want to play at Triple A or Double A versus Single A? And I know about the differences between the classes and how much I don't think it matters one bit, but you tell me how you answer that to families that might be concerned about you being a Single A school versus double or triple.
Rock Battistoni (36:17)
with it.
Yeah, I mean, I always say that you've got to look at where some kids from Class A are going off to school. Like when you see there's a lot of Division I schools that are getting kids from Class A and that speaks to the strength of the league. It is tough. Like again, a school like Milton has been awesome and they started
What Boston College Purdue Harvard and Princeton they're starting lineup like I'm pretty sure that there were some Double A's and Triple A's that did not have that I want to say it was a good amount of them. So I Think it's for folks. It's tough for them to If they're unfamiliar with it to kind of get a grasp of what what is with the different Classifications and is it better to be Triple A better be Double a than a is it better to be A than B?
I mean, there's some B schools that are terrific. So I think it's a lot of beauty in the eye of the beholder, but I always talk to families about where kids have gone from Loomis and where kids have gone from the rest of the league. And you've got guys in the NBA who played in Class A. So on any given night, you can have an awesome Class A school. It'll be a dogfight for a AAA school. So.
Cory Heitz (37:59)
And tell me about Loomis, where have some of your players ended up over the years?
Rock Battistoni (38:02)
Yeah, it's a really good variety of schools. I mean, most have been Division I kids.
I mean, mean, of our, Jaiden Delaire was Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Connecticut. Jaiden went to Stanford, and then he did a fifth year at San Diego, and he was in the G League this past year, and will probably, you know, either be in the G League or overseas next year, doing really, really well. And Nate Santos, who starts at Dayton right now. Nate started at Pittsburgh, and Nate was here for three years, and he was tremendous. And RJ Blakeney.
who was at D and then went to Old Dominion and Dueto Newberry starts at San Francisco. Josh Menard just graduated from St. Anselms and is doing a fifth year at NYU and Jesus Cruz played at Fairfield. He played professionally in Puerto Rico. Kwanzy Samuels just graduated from or he graduated from GW but then he did a fifth year at IUPY and you know, it's been a...
It's been a great run, a lot of talent and it makes it easy for me as a coach. But the guys have loved to play. They've loved to play. And that's always been the goal here to really have a good group of kids who love to play and their goal is to get off to play college basketball and what level we'll figure that out. And that's a big part of how they can help themselves figure that out. But you got to want to get in the gym and...
And a kid like Jaiden is still getting in the gym. A kid like Josh is gonna be in the gym tonight. So these are the guys that I've had, had to come through the door.
Cory Heitz (39:42)
And talk to me about how you place kids now in this current market with the Transfer Portal.
Rock Battistoni (39:46)
you're on the phone a lot, whether it's calls, texts, you're just really on the phone a lot and, it's, it's, it's not easy. but really the goal for this, this last group was to make sure that everyone was, was set. And it's like having, yeah, there's, there's plan a, but we've got to have a plan B and a plan C, just because of how, how, how,
just interesting things I've gotten from a recruiting standpoint with the portal. So, you know, having a lot of conversations with your kids and it's hard for them, right? It's hard for you and there's not a lot of clarity to it because it's like, the school's following me now on Instagram or on Twitter and can we reach out to them or reach out to them? There's a lot of that and then a lot of follow up calls. I mean, it's just, it's...
really maintaining constant communication with coaches. And there's a lot of movement on their part too. I had a coach who was at one school and recruited a kid, but he really wasn't interested in that school. And then he went to another school where the kid would want to go to. So again, that's maintaining that relationship. That's a big part of it too.
Cory Heitz (41:02)
Yeah, it's all about relationships. It's a network of people that know each other, that have known each other for years. And I've always said that guys like you, Rock, you're advocates for these players and you need an advocate in this day and age. And to me, there's no better advocate than a prep school coach like yourself, right? With that big Rolodex you got.
Rock Battistoni (41:04)
Yeah.
No, no, no. And a big selling point too is coaches, they have seen now kids come from Loomis who now have made huge impacts on some high top 25 teams. So, saying to a coach is like, hey, you gotta come take a look at this kid. I think they start to, they realize it too. They realize it too.
So that's paying off.
Cory Heitz (41:50)
Rock we're going to get into some quick hitters here, okay?
Rock Battistoni (41:53)
Yeah, nice.
Cory Heitz (41:55)
best biggest win of your coaching career.
Rock Battistoni (42:00)
Biggest win of my coaching career.
I mean, we won New England, but I mean, that was a great win. But I mean, this past year, the game against Milton was a tremendous game, and it was double overtime. Like, that was an awesome game. That was an awesome game. That was fun. That was fun.
Cory Heitz (42:16)
What about your biggest win as a player?
Rock Battistoni (42:18)
Biggest win as a player. my goodness. I forgot most of them. You remember the loss? I didn't play in this game. I don't know if I did play in this game, but we won at Dayton on a last second shot, but it was like a runner from half court. My teammate Carl Elliott stole the ball and you can still see on YouTube. He stole the ball and was like a crazy runner from half court. That was one of the most incredible games that I've certainly been a part of. That was fun. That was fun.
Cory Heitz (42:47)
Awesome. Who's the best player you ever guarded?
Rock Battistoni (42:50)
We put I so I started against West Virginia and then the next day I just start against Gonzaga And Ronny Turiaf was their center. So he was pretty good. He wrapped me and He dunked right on me wrap me. I was like first possession. They called me out some ISO in the post Ronny was I don't know 260 and I was 230 so he wrapped me Threw me right out of the way and dunked it. He was that was tough. That was tough to guard
Cory Heitz (43:20)
That never good for the ego. It's never good for the ego. And they call an ISO and you're guarding the guy and you're the guy getting ISOed. So.
Rock Battistoni (43:20)
But really, right.
Yeah. Thanks for the assignment coach, right? But even every day in practice, Pops is so athletic and if anyone wants to look up footage on Pops, they'll see that dude. And he got better and better and better. But he was tough to beat.
Cory Heitz (43:29)
Yeah, I got it. How about we go ahead.
Yeah, nevermind. Pop's a buddy of mine from DC, so I'm going to have to get him on here because he went to prep school himself. So that'll be a good story. And I actually saw him play when I was in Istanbul, Turkey randomly. And so yeah, Pop's a friend of the program here. Who's the best player you ever coached against? Like that just blew you guys up at the prep school level.
Rock Battistoni (43:53)
Yeah.
We are.
Cormac Ryan like drop 45 or no 40 on us in New York City. We played them and that was that was Jaiden Delaire's year. Cormac. Yeah, he he lit it up when I was at Cheshire. We played Canterbury and Canterbury had a young Donovan Mitchell and coach Keough and I we decided for the game. We were just going to have two guys guard Donovan the whole game and I think he still had like 25 we won but it was.
Cory Heitz (44:30)
Mm -hmm.
Rock Battistoni (44:36)
It was a wild game just to have two guys basically face guard. And I think when we were on offense, we made sure that we had a second guy near Donovan too, going down in transition. So there was always at least someone near him. So it worked out. We probably lucked out with that one.
Cory Heitz (44:57)
What's your favorite movie?
Rock Battistoni (44:59)
Favorite movie? Goodfellas. Always my favorite movie.
Cory Heitz (45:00)
or one of them.
call. And lastly, what are your hobbies when you're not coaching?
Rock Battistoni (45:11)
I've got three boys, so 10, 7, and 3, so they keep me busy. And that's the best hobby that you could have. They're a lot of fun. So it's just hanging out with them and watching them grow up. That's a great hobby.
Cory Heitz (45:29)
Is there anything else you want to touch on that we didn't mention in this podcast?
Rock Battistoni (45:31)
No, nothing at all. I certainly appreciate the invite. It's been a lot of fun and I would love to come back anytime.
Cory Heitz (45:40)
Yeah. Where can people find you if they're interested in reaching out to you or learning more about Loomis Hoops?
Rock Battistoni (45:45)
Yeah, so obviously on the website, Loomis Chaffee. And then if you go to admissions, you can find my contact info or if you go to athletics, to varsity boys basketball, you can certainly find me there. Shoot me an email, but also on Twitter, Coach Battistoni or just on Loomis basketball Twitter. You can find me there as well. So yeah, feel free to reach out.
Cory Heitz (46:10)
Yeah, perfect. And Rock, thanks so much for joining us. This is Rock Battistone, head coach of Loomis Chaffee. Single A school, great education, great basketball. Thanks so much for coming on. If you like this podcast, be sure to subscribe on all the major podcasting platforms. Subscribe on YouTube where we also release bonus content. And any questions that come up, go to prepathletics .com, sign up for the newsletter, reach out to me. I'll answer any question you got on prep schools and just keep tuning in so we can keep sharing.
Great information and great guests with you. So thanks so much. We'll see you next time.