'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 3 -- at Cambridge Springs Tip-Off      4-- at Cambridge Springs Tip-Off      7-- at Grove City      10-- Slippery Rock      14-- at Hickory      17-- at Sharon      21-- at George Junior      28-- at Franklin Christmas Tournament      29-- at Franklin Christmas Tournament Jan . 4 -- Mercer      7-- at Reynolds      11-- at Wilmington (6p.m.)      14-- Sharpsville      18-- Hickory      21-- West Middlesex      25-- at Slippery Rock      28-- Sharon Feb. 1-- George Junior      4-- at Mercer      8--Reynolds      11-- Wilmington      15-- at Sharpsville      17-- Grove City      22-- at West Middlesex

By The Herald Sports Staff

It's that time of year again for Greenville High School boys basketball coach Kelly Jones: Acclimating several of his athletes to the hardwood following a successful, albeit lengthy, football season.

While Greenville's grid program produced another conference and district champion and ventured into the PIAA playoffs, Jones and his depleted cage squad attempted to commence the campaign on the second Monday of November.

"It's the age-old problem for us: We had four kids start (preseason workouts) three weeks, ago and four of them started, basically, this week,'' Jones recently related.

But, while no less than a handful of projected key components have only recently traded their helmets for hightops, a pair of players whose seasons were short-circuited by knee injuries have returned from a year's hiatus in 6-foot-1 junior wing Sam Young and 5-10 senior swingman Luke Strosser.

"Team play is the one thing that, I guess, we need to continue to develop in order for us to progress,'' Jones, the sixth-year mentor related.

He will have a half-dozen returning lettermen upon which he can build, including senior swingmen Aaron Thompson and Mike Titzel, 6-6 and 6-2, respectively, wings Steve Sereda and Kenny Strader, a 5-11 senior and 6-1 junior, respectively, and 6-1 junior post player Wes Baird, in addition to Young, who averaged double digits as a freshman. Newcomers expected to make an immediate impact, in addition to Strosser, include senior wings Brent Sutherland and Chad Swartzbeck, 5-9 and 5-11, respectively. Titzel, Baird and Sutherland like, Young and Strosser, played football.

Due to the dearth of available players, Jones was forced to cancel the club's initial scrimmage, but a tri-scrimmage with Commodore Perry and Jamestown revealed "what direction our practices needed to go in and where we need to concentrate our efforts. It was a learning experience,'' Jones said.

"We don't have a starting five, but we have (a rotation of) nine, so our strength is in our group,'' Jones explained. "We're going to have some depth, and at this point, hopefully, that'll enable us to play a little bit of an up-tempo game, by utilizing the depth we feel we have. And our perimeter shooting, those are what we're viewing as our strengths.''

But speaking specifically of Young and Strosser, Jones admitted, "It's great having them back, but it's also glaring that they missed an entire year of competition and practice. So even though they're a junior and senior, we almost have to look at them as a sophomore and junior.

"But we hope to gradually improve,'' Jones continued. "That's where we're really looking (because) we have only one Mercer County Athletic Conference-AA game before Christmas.''

The Trojans are coming off a 3-21 overall, 2-12 MCAC campaign, but Jones, who exuded excitement at the prospect of a new season, reasoned, "We don't want to dwell so much on last year because it was not the most positive, but hopefully the kids have grown up after playing under adverse conditions last year. Hopefully, they suffered some growing pains last year but will be able to reap some of the rewards this year.''

Jones' No. 1 goal for the Trojans "is making the (District 10) playoffs, then I'd love to get into interdistrict play. Those are my two goals at this point.''

But in order to accomplish those, Jones & Co. will have to survive what he anticipates will be a brutal circuit slate.

"If you look at the number of returning lettermen, from top to bottom, this is going to be as competitive a league as I've seen during my tenure,'' Jones assessed. "Mercer has, probably, four of its top six back; Sharpsville has at least three three-year lettermen; Reynolds lost only one (player to graduation), so they have most of their nucleus back, and Wilmington is going to be extremely competitive with (football players Matt) Robison and (Mike) Copper; they'll bring a winning attitude and physical presence, so they'll be extremely competitive. And with a new coach at West Middlesex (Chad Mild), who bleeds Red & White, I'm sure he's going to have high expectations for them. And,'' Jones concluded, "with the return of Bob McConnell (at George Junior Republic), that almost speaks for itself. He'll raise the level of the Tigers' play back to its former stature.''