Steve Liebertz has been coaching high school basketball for four decades.
He’s seen and done it all. You’d think someone as seasoned as the Great Neck South sideline leader couldn’t be surprised by much anymore.
But when asked if he saw coming the remarkable run his boys’ hoops squad is currently on, Liebertz laughed.
“No, I didn’t think we’d be able to do this,” the coach said. “I thought they had potential, I thought maybe we’d improve and have a good season. But not this.”
“This” is an 11-game winning streak, the last 10 in the regular season, and a 57-50 first-round Class A playoff win over Valley Stream North on Feb. 17.
Great Neck South hasn’t lost in 2023, its most recent defeat coming on Dec. 29. Led by some precocious sophomore twins, Jesse and John Roggendorf, and junior Jesse Tricario, the Rebels went 15-5 in the regular season and easily captured Conference A-1, their first title in five years.
The No. 7 seed in the Class A playoffs, GNS eased past Valley Stream North and is due to play No. 2 seed South Side Feb. 21.
“We’ve been playing as one, all five of us working together on the court, and the last few months it’s all come together,” said John Roggendorf, a 6-foot-5 forward. “Last year a lot of us were young and new to varsity, and we had such great leadership from the older players that have taught us how to lead.”
The Rebels were 8-4 in league last season led by Joseph Fernandez and Justin Semmel, and this year have been led in scoring by Jesse Roggendorf. The 6-foot sharpshooter averages 18.5 points per game and has developed into more of an all-court scorer.
“I have a bigger role to fill, and and a lot of the work I did in the offseason has helped a lot,” Jesse Roggendorf said. “Really everyone on this year’s team is playing hard and doing everything they can to help us.”
Great Neck South hasn’t just been winning, it’s been blowing teams out.
Only one victory in the streak to end the regular season was by fewer than 10 points, and the Rebels learned from early-season defeats to strong squads from Port Washington, Lynbrook and cross-town rival Great Neck North.
“I wish we could play some of those teams again now because we’re a lot more sound than we were before,” Tricario said.
In addition to the Roggendorfs and Tricario, Liebertz said contributions have been made from Edwin Serpas, who last season wrestled for the school, and Shaun Wei.
“This team doesn’t fluster,” Liebertz said. “They get down, they come back, they don’t ever seem to be overwhelmed or too worried about anything.”
The way last season ended gave the young Rebels even more motivation heading into this year’s Class A playoffs. Great Neck South fell 52-51 in the first round to Clarke, with Jesse Roggendorf audibly wincing when recalling a last-second shot he took that didn’t go down.
“I told him after that game that he’s going to be taking a lot more key shots for us, a lot more,” Liebertz said. “And that he’d make a lot of them.”
Tricario, whose dad Anthony also played for Liebertz, said that the roll the Rebels have been on can only help when things get tough in the postseason.
“We’ve talked about how last season ended and that motivates us,” Tricario said. “We know we can’t take any team lightly. But it’s been so fun seeing the students and the school get behind us. We want to keep it going and give them reasons to keep supporting us.”
