'Shooter at heart': Sara Chicco is Rocky Mountain basketball's relentless record-setter

Rocky Mountain girls basketball standout Sara Chicco wasn't expecting the accompanying photo shoot.

"I knew about the interview, but the pictures were a surprise," said a scrambling but smiling Chicco.

Opponents, though, know all about Chicco's shooting.

The Lobos' senior guard is again among Colorado's top girls scorers, continuing to etch her name across the program's record books.

Last year was already record-breaking. Ten 3-pointers vs. Prairie View set a single-game program record. She made 96 triples total and did it a 48% clip, both shattering top Rocky marks.

This season, Chicco's averaging 20 points per game (5th in Class 6A), leads 6A in 3s made (66) and is second among top-50 shooters at 43% beyond the arc.

Throw in her 90% free throw shooting from 2021-22, a mark she's on pace to shatter at 95% this winter. She's over 1,300 career points. There's an outside chance she even breaks the Lobos' record for most points (501) in a season.

"We haven't had a shooter like her in a very long time," Rocky coach Justin Vallejo said. "And it may be a while until we have one again."

But her scoring has helped unlock Rocky Mountain's potential by actually relying on it less.

Here's the story behind Northern Colorado's top sharpshooter and how she's shaped this Lobos team.

Basketball wasn't immediately her sport

Basketball wasn't even Chicco's sport until sixth grade. The game didn't exactly run in her family, and Chicco spent her youth as a gymnast, never playing organized hoops.

Once the basketball was in her hands, though?

"I immediately fell in love with the game," Chicco said. "It was more my speed."

The dedication that defines her (more on that below) kicked in right away. She would get up hundreds of shots as her parents or sister rebounded.

Chicco spent the next several years into high school vigilantly working with local club and prep coaches, like Greg Smith, Kendall Brandon and Karin Nicholls.

They honed but never fundamentally changed Chicco's unique, rapid-fire release.

"I shoot kinda weird, from the side instead of the middle," she said. "But they never tried to mess with it. That really gave me the confidence to get my shots off."

It's a stroke that can be volatile but lethal when firing, which is often. Chicco said she can instantly tell when her shot gets in the zone.

"You feel it as a sequence, the shot starts from the legs up through your arms and fingertips. It’s like a string being pulled." Chicco said. "I love that feeling.

"But when you're not, it feels rushed instead, like you're off balance."

Chicco was finding her way into that zone too often for opponents' liking, and they've adjusted.

So, Vallejo and the Lobos reshuffled the deck around their ace.

Lobos tweak Chicco's game for team needs

Despite a fast start for Rocky this season, opposing defenses found some success focusing on the star guard.

Box-and-1 defenses clogged the middle and limited options. Face-guarding Chicco became the norm.

But this Rocky team is probably the deepest in Chicco's four seasons, with an ultra-reliable point guard in Kenna Wagner and the Delap twins (Morgan and Meela) down low.

So, Chicco isn't just a spot-up shooter or perimeter presence anymore.

Rocky has started utilizing Chicco from the post, as a decoy beyond the arc or as a driver/facilitator if the defense overextends.

"It's actually freed her up, took some pressure off and balanced our scoring better," Vallejo said.

"She's grown in being a versatile teammate," Wagner said. "She's trying to find new ways to contribute."

With a high-school growth spurt to about 6 feet, it makes sense to have Chicco battling in the paint sometimes.

It's still a sea change, especially for a shooter who can regularly hit shots from 20-plus feet, even making in-game baskets from Rocky's big RM center-court logo.

"I've been learning to be more physical from Morgan and Meela. They can really body you," Chicco said, laughing.

The tweaks worked, too.

The Delap sisters recently had a game where they both eclipsed 20 points. Wagner had a career-best 11 assists in a December game. Plus, teammates like Sage Bennett, Sydney Schlepp and Alayna Wentz have been strong on both ends of the floor.

"I'm trying to be more what our teams needs," Chicco said. "And other teams are starting to realize their plan isn't going to work."

The Lobos (15-6 overall) are 9-3 in FRL play, with a Feb. 15 season-finale showdown at Fort Collins.

At No. 17 in CHSSA's seeding index as of Thursday, they're on the borderline to host a playoff game, which would be the program's first home postseason game since 2018.

Chicco is 'definitely a shooter at heart'

That would just be the beginning for Chicco, the player and person.

She's described by friends, teammates and coaches as constantly positive and relentless in her pursuits, embodying the school's "Lobo Way."

"She throws herself into everything she does," Vallejo said. "That’s her most valuable skill."

"She is such a dedicated person, no matter what she's doing," Wagner reiterated.

It shows in Chicco's work on Rocky's Student Council.

"We're really going to miss her at this school and in this program when she's done," Vallejo said.

It shows through her pursuit of hiking every Colorado 14ers — she's scaled 16 of the 58 so far.

Or via a passion for her hobby of dot mandala painting, using dots to form a full, vibrant picture.

"It's my release when I can't go practice or do something outside," she said.

And finally, in what's next. She's committed to Pomona College to continue her academic and athletic career.

That diversifying of her game this year, stepping into different roles and positions?

That will likely help at the next level, though Chicco said her collegiate coaches still plan to primarily feature her shooting.

"It's ideal for me, because I am definitely a shooter at heart," she said with a grin.

She's aiming for a future in pre-med for her college studies. The hope is to become a surgeon after growing up in a "scientific household around all kinds of microscopes," specifically mentioning her father, Adam, a biomedical sciences professor at Colorado State University.

That background, she said, instilled a curiosity for the details big and small. It was almost a realization in real time, threading disparate passions together.

"I think surgery is about the precision and the details. That's similar to how you work with dot mandala, which is a lot like the finesse of a basketball leaving your hands," Chicco said.

"It all feels connected to me."

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado basketball: Sara Chicco is Rocky Mountain's relentless record shooter