Blazing her own trail
UNLV Lady Rebels coach Lindy La Rocque has returned to her hometown with a coaching pedigree that started at home and continued at one of the most storied women’s college basketball programs in history. (Photo Courtesy: UNLV)
LAS VEGAS — Hundreds of big games ignited different emotions while Al La Rocque roamed the sidelines.
Between Western (1975-80) and Durango (1993-07) high schools, La Rocque has been a part of Nevada preps history many times.
And years after retirement, he may have been the most anxious over a basketball game on Dec. 2.
Watching a livestream of the UNLV Lady Rebels in Fullerton, his daughter Lindy was coaching in the second game of the debut season in her collegiate career. A season-opening loss in the Thomas and Mack Center meant the Lady Rebels would attempt to give their new coach her first career win on the road.
"I was nervous as heck," Al La Rocque texted after the Lady Rebels let a 25-point lead shrink to 13 with three minutes left. "It was a WIN! WhooHoo!"
If we weren't experiencing a pandemic, La Rocque undoubtedly would have been in attendance with wife Bev, cheering on the little girl who used to run around Durango's gym with the bottoms of basketball shorts touching her ankles. Anywhere inside the pacific time zone, the La Rocques would have been there, sister Ally likely included.
Instead, with angst, they celebrated win No. 1 for Lindy via livestream.
"It was special," he later said over the phone, catching up for 10 minutes about the wealth of emotions he's experienced since Lindy was named head coach of her hometown Lady Rebels.
Looking back, it really is no surprise to see her where she belongs at this point in her career, roaming her own sidelines.
And Papa La Rocque said he puts himself there mentally, watching things like the Lady Rebels have their lead cut in half while calling a timeout in his mind just as Lindy does in Fullerton. And when her team takes the floor and executes in the same manner he would have drawn up, pride outweighs anxiety.
"In a lot of ways I am a product of the way that my parents raised me," Lindy La Rocque said during a phone interview last month. "My father in particular, raising me in the gym and exposing me to basketball."
Where it all began.
TRAIL BLAZING
Retired high school coach Al La Rocque turned Durango High School basketball in Las Vegas into a powerhouse in the 1990s. He began coaching his daughter, Lindy (14), when she got to high school. (Photo courtesy: Al La Rocque)
It was at Durango where Al La Rocque emerged, coaching against other greats along the way, while building the Trail Blazers program from infancy.
Hank Girardi was at Cimarron-Memorial, Tony Hopkins had Rancho contending again, Gene Carpenter was building Green Valley into a powerhouse, Larry Johnson was in charge at Cheyenne, and the biggest rival of them all, Jeff Wagonseller was coaching Bishop Gorman when it was still on Maryland Parkway.
When Durango visited Gorman's tiny gym for one of their two Sunset League meetings, tickets were presold a week before and they went quick. You walked inside and could have fed the point guard with an inbounds pass from the baseline you were so close.
It was the evolution of high school basketball -- from the traditional 10-team league to a new-age 14-team league that evolved the same way Michael Jordan transcended the NBA, from the long baggy shorts to the way the game is played now.
In her own baggy shorts, Lindy La Rocque didn't know at the time what she was soaking in.
"As a kid, I don't know the difference between Roy Williams and Joe Blow who coaches at whatever high school," she said. "As a kid you don't know those differences and so now it's kind of funny reflecting on those moments."
And the reflection isn't so much the fact she was around when her father was rubbing recruiting elbows with every major college coach in the nation at the time. They'd been through his gym to see the nation's best during summer AAU tournaments or, at the time, the biggest in-season holiday high school tournament, the Reebok Holiday Prep.
There was the inaugural Big Time tournament that debuted at Durango and was scattered around the valley, with a young kid from Lower Merion, Pennsylvania having his coming out party. Kobe Bryant was opening eyes of NBA scouts, and Lindy was watching too.
"My dad worked his tail off to create those relationships, to create those opportunities," she said. "And then for him to share them with myself, my sister, our family, gave me the ability to learn, to see and to dream that anything is possible."
It didn't matter who you were - media, players, coaches, parents - everyone knew Ally and Lindy. The girls knew as much about the inside of a basketball gym as anyone else growing up, with Al contributing to Southern Nevada's basketball reputation as a hotbed, and mom Bev specializing in hospitality. She knew the coaches, knew their wives, knew the players and their parents, and knew everyone's little ones. She made sure you knew if you were stepping inside the Blazer Dome, you were among family. She may have even taught a few toddlers how to properly open a banana - from the bottom.
Lindy and Ally - who both played sports growing up - never fell short of mentors when it came to running to an athletics program; which is why it's also no surprise Ally is the director of women's basketball administration at Kansas State.
"Ally played because daddy was the coach, (her) competitive nature led her to management," Al La Rocque said. "Lindy played because she fell in love with the game."
And still is.
PRIDE AND HONOR
Lindy La Rocque: "Growing up in our household it was all about our family, my dad's teams becoming a part of our family, their families becoming a part of our family. I've been blessed throughout my career - college, schooling, coaching - to share all of my biggest life moments with my family." (Photo courtesy: UNLV)
At some point Lindy La Rocque was bound to run into Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.
She played under VanDerveer for four years, and then was an assistant at her alma mater.
Just three games into her coaching career, La Rocque was a nemesis. When Santa Clara County officials instituted a shutdown in November, it meant the end of competitive sports for the likes of Stanford, Cal, the 49ers, and anything else out of the Bay Area.
The Cardinal was set to host Washington and Washington State over the first weekend in December, and VanDerveer turned to her protégé for a branch. The second-ranked Cardinal added the Lady Rebels to the schedule.
And the teacher taught her student a lesson, as Stanford won 101-54. That didn't stop the mentor from praising her mentee.
"I think Lindy was born to be a coach," VanDerveer said. "Her dad was an outstanding coach in Las Vegas. We used to, as coaches when Lindy was playing, forget drills. And we were like 'Oh, Lindy will remember that drill.' And she did."
Just like her father, Lindy La Rocque's role stretched beyond the coaching sideline. Dad orchestrated and helped organize some of the biggest AAU and high school tournaments, and thanks to the relationships she's built, Lindy was able to facilitate one of the most storied women's college basketball programs in history to play UNLV.
When her father heard her tell media members her team's mantra would be: "How you do anything is how you do everything," he assumed she got that one from VanDerveer.
"Because that's not a phrase that I used," Al La Rocque said. "The thing that separates a lot of athletes and a lot of people with talent is you have to have this inner drive to compete."
And he, more than anyone, knows about Lindy's inner drive.
From the days she played youth soccer with her sister, to those days she ran around the Blazer Dome helping her parents run tournaments, to the days she starred in the gym and left there as the all-time scoring leader - among both Durango's boys and girls’ basketball teams - to playing in four Final Fours at Stanford, to building her coaching career.
It's a dream come true for a true Vegas gal who knows what Rebel pride is and has been since she was a ball girl for the Runnin' Rebels. "Vegas pride" is what she called it, one that brings "honor and privilege" to wear a UNLV logo emblazoned on her shirt.
Yet, it's not just her dream.
"It really is a dream come true for her mom and I," Al La Rocque said. "I look in the mirror every morning when I get up and I'm thinking why was I blessed with all these good things in my life and remember that I need to do something to pay it forward. There's somebody that needs a smile, there's somebody that needs a hello, which is not so common in our society right now."
Said Lindy La Rocque: "Growing up in our household it was all about our family, my dad's teams becoming a part of our family, their families becoming a part of our family. I've been blessed throughout my career - college, schooling, coaching - to share all of my biggest life moments with my family."
From proud father to pride-filled daughter, the legacy continues.
