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Updated: March 6, 2026 @ 10:57 am
Unity senior Dane Eisenmenger goes up for a layup in front of Fairfield’s Lane Robson during Wednesday night’s Class 2A Monticello Sectional semifinal game at the Sievers Center in Monticello. Eisenmenger and the Rockets play Teutopolis at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the sectional championship game.
Prep Sports Coordinator
Unity senior Dane Eisenmenger goes up for a layup in front of Fairfield’s Lane Robson during Wednesday night’s Class 2A Monticello Sectional semifinal game at the Sievers Center in Monticello. Eisenmenger and the Rockets play Teutopolis at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the sectional championship game.
TOLONO — Unity seniors Tyler Henry and Tre Hoggard visited Champaign on Sunday for The News-Gazette’s annual Faces of the Spring event.
They were decked out in their full baseball uniforms and looked ready to get the spring season underway.
But baseball can wait a little longer. If all goes as planned, the Rockets still have four more boys’ basketball games to play.
And the belief isn’t just among the players on coach Matt Franks’ basketball team. Veteran Unity baseball coach Tom Kimball is a believer, too.
“We had our first baseball games pushed back because coach Kimball is already banking on us going to state,” Henry said. “All of us are. That’s our goal, and it’s exciting. Those early-morning lifts, we all stuck together and worked hard, and it’s starting to pay off. It’s all falling into place. We’re really starting to live up to the hype.”
Two days after taking their photos in ballcaps with bats and gloves in hand, Henry, Hoggard and the rest of the Unity boys’ basketball team cruised past Fairfield 51-32 in a Class 2A Monticello Sectional semifinal game on Wednesday night at the Sievers Center.
The Rockets (31-2) are no stranger to this stage, having reached the 3A state football championship game this past November. All five starters on Wednesday night for Unity — Henry, Hoggard, Dane Eisenmenger, Brayden Henry and Coleton Langendorf — all started in the state title game against Byron and were important players as the Rockets finished the football season with a 12-2 record.
Nearly all of them, too, are key starters on the baseball diamond for the Rockets, who reached a 2A sectional championship game last season.
So, even with an expected capacity crowd on hand at the Sievers Center on Friday night when the Rockets take on familiar foe Teutopolis, these Unity seniors are accustomed to the spotlight.
“We feel like we can do anything, and we’ve shown we can do anything,” Hoggard said. “We’re hoping we can take one of these titles home. Maybe two of them. We’ve always known we have the talent. The only problem with us was we wanted something for ourselves. Going through high school, we started to realize that the only way this is going to work is if we play with each other. We took on that role after our eighth-grade year, and we never really looked back.”
That togetherness shows on the court. And in the stat sheet. For a team that’s won a program-record 31 games and carries a 22-game win streak into Friday night, Langendorf is averaging a team-high 12.0 points to go along with a team-high 7.5 rebounds.
Unity has two more players in double figures as Eisenmenger averages 11.5 points and Tyler Henry averages 10.3 points. Eisenmenger also averages 5.9 rebounds and has made 50 three-pointers, while Tyler Henry has sank a team-high 54 three-pointers.
Hoggard (8.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals), Brayden Henry (8.8 points) and fellow senior Mason O’Neill (6.3 points) are also effective offensively.
Meaning it’s a balanced, selfless group that prides itself on defensive effort and takes points wherever they may come from.
“What’s helped them is it hasn’t had to be this one guy every night,” Franks said. “The balance they have is what’s allowed them to have continued success. They’ve had success their whole lives. For any group to have success, you need talent. That’s the obvious part. They have a lot of talent, but they’re also mentally tough and ready to perform on the bright stages. The moment can never get too big. They just stay focused on the task right in front of them.”
Now, that next task is defeating the only team that’s given the Rockets trouble this season: Teutopolis.
The Wooden Shoes (30-3) are also no stranger to the big stages. They’ve won four consecutive sectional titles and collected the program’s fourth state trophy with a third-place finish in 2023. Teutopolis edged Warrensburg-Latham 40-39 on Tuesday night in the first Monticello Sectional semifinal game.
“They have a great tradition,” Franks said. “It’s a basketball school. They live and breathe it. It’s been a fortunate run of great talent, and it wasn’t just a 10-year run of great athletes. They’ve been consistent for a long time. Definitely something we’d love to build here at Unity.”
And the Rockets are a familiar opponent. Teutopolis beat Unity 56-50 on Dec. 6 in Teutopolis and again 37-36 on Dec. 31 in the Effingham-Teutopolis Christmas Classic championship game in Effingham for the Rockets’ only two losses this season. And the Wooden Shoes ousted Unity with a 48-39 sectional semifinal win in 2024.
The winner on Friday night advances to the Pontiac Super-Sectional at 7 p.m. Monday. Either Bishop McNamara (28-5) or Yorkville Christian (23-10) awaits, with the winner on Monday night advancing to a state semifinal game at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday at State Farm Center in Champaign.
Ending their season at State Farm Center is a goal these Rockets have had for some time.
“The only team we’ve lost to is standing right in front of us, and if we take care of them, we love our shot at winning it all,” Hoggard said. “We have those goals, but we have to look at the game right in front of us. There’s a little pressure, but it falls on us. We know what we can do, and we just have to go out there and do that.”
Similarly to Unity pushing back the start of its baseball season, Franks did the same with the basketball schedule. Rather, he was forced to after the football team played into late November. It’s a good problem to have, and it also shows just how good these Rockets are.
“That’s kind of been their careers as three-sport athletes,” Franks said. “People forget that we’re 18 practices behind T-Town. When you really step back from that, that’s 18 opportunities to get better. It just speaks volumes of our kids that they’re able to continue to put themselves in these positions. They’re just ultra-competitive guys, and that competitive spirit is what makes them special. Hopefully, we’ve got a little more left in this season, but whenever this season ends, they’ll go have a great baseball season and a great track season.”
Prep Sports Coordinator
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