'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 4 -- Youngstown Cardinal Mooney      7-- Hickory      10-- Commodore Perry      11-- at Slippery Rock      14-- Grove City      17-- Slippery Rock      21Reynolds      22-- at Hickory      29-- at Sharon Jan . 4 -- at Greenville      7-- West Middlesex      11-- at Kennedy Christian      14-- at Wilmington      18-- George Junior      21-- Sharpsville      25-- at Grove City      28-- Kennedy Christian Feb. 1 -- at Reynolds      4-- Greenville      8-- at West Middlesex      11-- at Commodore Perry      15-- Wilmington      18-- at George Junior      22-- at Sharpsville

By The Herald Sports Staff

In terms of wins and losses, the Mercer Mustangs' 1998-99 mark of 12-12, including 7-5 in MCAC AA, certainly wouldn't rank with some of the better seasons under veteran mentor Dave Cook.

There were, however, a few memorable games that Cook must be hoping to build upon this season.

Among those dozen victories was a 60-57 decision over eventual District 10-AAA champion Grove City as well as a pair over AAA Slippery Rock and Sharon.

But it was a trio of losses that might have said more about what kind of team these Mustangs were than any victory: a 56-52 loss to eventual PIAA-A state champion Kennedy Christian and one-point (57-56) and five-point (58-53) losses to George Junior Republic, which was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state at the time and eventually advanced to the state quarterfinals.

The question is will that effort carry over to this season?

"It's hard to (answer) that, because it's not the same team," said Cook. "There's two big ingredients missing from last year in Art Amos and Chris Spangler. Between them they led us in almost all our categories."

The 6-2 Amos (306 points) was the team's leading scorer while the 6-5 Spangler (268) was the teams' second-leading scorer and leading rebounder. Spangler also paced the Mustangs in steals and field goal percentage.

"Every kid brings something else to the game," Cook said. "Art was a great shooter and Spangler was as big as kid as we have had in a long time. And that helped us a lot defensively. But you don't replace individuals, you replace members. But even as valuable as they were, they didn't bring to the table what the kids they replaced did. Every kid has his strengths and weaknesses."

Strengths might be a good place to start for the Mustangs who return four players, all letterwinners, who rotated in the other three starting positions a year ago.

They are: 6-3 senior forward Adam Berti (238), 6-2 junior forward Chris Green (218), 6-2 senior Matt Postage (186) and 5-11 senior guard Zac Doyle (70). And that has Cook feeling somewhat optimistic.

"That's a place I think everyone would like to start," he said, referring to returning four starters. "But I don't see anyone there that's going to be a 20-point score every night. I hope it's going to be somebody different every night. I hope our strength is the fact that there is some experience there."

Another strength Cook likes is his team's overall size.

"We do have some decent size overall, but when I say overall size, I mean for us," he said. "We're still not big compared to other schools in the county. I've got three or four kids over 6-foot, but no 6-5 or 6-6 kid that would qualify you as having size."

One thing these kids are sure to have is a strong work-ethic, a standard mark of a Cook-coached squad.

"The kids are working hard and I know they'll play hard," Cook said. "But we haven't been in the gym two weeks yet and it's slow. All the kids were in other sports and all bring their individual habits from those sports. And it has to get turned around, but it's nothing other coaches don't face."

Asked to single out a weakness, Cook mentioned quickness, or the lack thereof.

"I don't think we're near as quick as where we need to be and that poses a different perspective for us on defense," Cook said. "We have to learn how to play against quicker kids and from past experience I know that's not easy sometimes."

Others expected to dress varsity are: seniors ‹ 6-0 forward Justin Burk, 5-10 forward Justin Haynie, 6-0 guard-forward David Jackson and 6-2 forward Miguel Maldonado; juniors ‹ 6-3 center Brandon Golden, 5-10 forward Mike Frydrych, 6-0 guard-forward Lowell Jensen and 6-0 forward Greg McConnell; sophomore ‹ 6-0 forward Justin Brennesholtz.

"As of right now, we're probably looking at Jackson as the other starter (in addition to the four returning letterwinners)," Cook said. "Where I go from there I don't know. It's pretty wide open and my thought is we have to create some type of bench that's reliable."

Cook, who enters his 26th season at the Mustang helm, is on target to reach another milestone this season. He has compiled a 392-277 record and would reach the 400-win plateau with eight victories. He trails only Farrell legend Ed McCluskey (615-157 at Farrell and 698-185 overall) in terms of coaching victories in county annals.

Assisting Cook are: junior varsity coach Art Amos, 9th-grade coach Dan Weikal and junior high coach Doug Schmid.

As for the league race, Cook expects it to be a real battle between a handful of squads.