Longtime Assistant Looks To Build On Recent Success
Following back-to-back regional tournament appearances for the first time in program history, the Rockbridge County High School girls basketball team will be under the direction of a new head coach, but he’s a coach the returning players know well.
Tyler Falls, who has been an assistant coach for the girls for the last three years, was named the new head coach, the Rockbridge County High School athletic department announced last Wednesday. Falls replaces Darrell Plogger, who stepped down after coaching the girls for the last three years.
Falls, 42, is a 2002 RC graduate who has been coaching for 18 years, but this is his first head coaching job at the varsity level. The son of Nale and Deborah Falls, he was the head coach for the RC girls’ junior varsity team for two years and was an assistant coach for the RC boys basketball team for several years when Plogger was the head coach in the 2010s.
Plogger, 61, said Falls will make a great coach. “He’s ready for the job,” said Plogger, who said he will support the team as a fan and any other way they need. “He has great patience, and he has four daughters, so I kind of feel like he was made for that job.”
Looking forward to having Falls guide the program, RC athletic director Anthony Marasco said, “We are absolutely excited to welcome Coach Falls into this new leadership role. Tyler has shown incredible dedication to Rockbridge County basketball over the years. His familiarity with our athletes, combined with his distinct vision for the future of the girls’ program, makes him the perfect fit to lead our team forward.”
A day after he got the news that he would be the head coach, Falls said, “I’m super excited. The thing I’m most excited about it is I have a rapport with the kids.”
Falls expressed gratitude for his wife of nearly 13 years, Emily, for being so supportive. He also thanked Plogger for all of his guidance. “I learned most of my coaching from Coach Plogger,” said Falls.
To prepare for coaching, Falls said he learned most of his leadership skills through his high school football coach, Billy Mills. “He ran his program with a no-nonsense attitude,” said Falls.
Falls was a wide receiver for the RC football team and played some for Emory & Henry College before transferring to Central Virginia Community College, from which he graduated in 2008. He was a forward for the RC boys basketball team, first under head coach David Miller and then for Richard Whitesell, playing for both the varsity and JV teams as a freshman and then for the varsity team his sophomore through senior years.
Since he started coaching in 2008, in addition to coaching at the varsity and JV level, Falls coached the Virginia Military Institute club basketball team in his early years, when he was a VMI police officer.
In addition to coaching and spending time with his family, Falls is a deputy for the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office, often working in uniform at other RC sporting events.
Grateful that Rockbridge County Sheriff Tony McFaddin is allowing him to continue coaching, Falls said, “He’s been nothing but supportive. It’s nice to be able to work for a sheriff’s department that allows me to do that. It works out perfect with my schedule.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming season, Falls said he wants to bring more excitement to the team and to make basketball fun. He noted that numbers were low last winter, when the Wildcats didn’t have a JV team. “I want to bring kids wanting to play basketball, doing camps,” he said, adding that he’d like to have special nights for little league players from the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization. With the middle school teams doing well last year, Falls is confident the RC girls will have a JV team this season.
While he’ll have a different coaching style than Plogger, Falls plans to keep a lot of the things the same. “I didn’t want the girls to have learned this offense for two years and then have somebody come wipe it out,” he said. “As far as the X’s and O’s, they’ll know a lot of it because the terminology Coach Plogger uses, I’m gonna use. They’ll know exactly what I’m expecting.”
At the same time, while Plogger was more of an old school coach, Falls said he’ll be “a more open book.”
“I think the big thing for them is hearing a different voice and a different spin,” said Falls. “I’m a motivator. You can approach me with anything.” fn his coaching staff, Falls has already had three assistant coaches – Ricky Haston, Paul Pelter and Monica Shaus – tell him that they’re returning.
That staff helped the Wildcats go 20-29 over the last two years, making it to the Region 3C tournament both years before they were ousted in the first round. Prior to the 2024-25 season, the Wildcats hadn’t made the regional tournament in six years. “We should make it every year,” said Falls.
RC went 11-13 in the 2024-25 season before going 9-16 last winter, including 7-9 in their first season in the Shenandoah District.
Although the Wildcats graduated four seniors from last winter’s spring, led by all-district and all-region forward Lola Mulitalo, they look to return a talented group, led by rising seniors Dez Butler and Lexi Samante and rising junior Genesis McCoy.
Falls looks forward to working with the returning players and welcoming some new ones, starting with open gyms and summer workouts. “I’m hoping to get in there as soon as possible and do that,” he said.
