'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 3 -4 -- at Mohawk Tournament      7-- at George Junior      10-- at Greenville      11-- Mercer      14-- at Sharpsville      17-- at Mercer      22-- Reynolds      28-29 -- at West Middlesex Tournament Jan . 4 -- Sharon      7-- Grove City      11-- at Hickory      14-- Oil City      19-- at Lakeview      21-- at Kennedy Chrisitan      25-- Greenville      28-- at Wilmington Feb. 4-- Kennedy Christian      8-- at Grove City      11-- at Grove City      15-- Hickory      19-- at Titusville      22-- George Junior.

By The Herald Sports Staff

Chris Burtch may be entering his first season as the Rockets' varsity coach, but that's not to say he's unfamiliar with the players.

Burtch, who is taking over for Posie Rhoads, has taught seven years in the school district, coached on the eighth and ninth grade levels at Slippery Rock and served as varsity assistant under then-Rocket coach Gary Revale in 1995.

"I've coached every kid here. There's not one I haven't," Burtch said. "It's nice to walk into the summer team camps and have all of the kids familiar with the system. You don't have to spend a lot of time selling them on the system."

That system involves one basic component ‹ getting the ball to 6-7 junior Ben Zajac.

"That's obviously got to be one of our offensive goals," Burtch said. "We have to get him as many touches as possible. But other guys are going to have to play offense, too. They're going to have to take shots and move the ball."

Those others include: 6-7 senior forward Ryan Killian, sophomore point guard Zack Sarver, 6-0 senior Josh Hartman, 6-1 junior Dustin Hufnagel, 6-0 sophomore Luke McCaffery, 5-11 senior Nic Geraci, 6-2 senior Kevin Burr, 6-6 senior Robbie Greaves and 6-5 sophomore Braden Campbell.

Of those, only Killian (157), Hartman (10) and Burr (9) saw significant action last year, while Greaves and Geraci played in a handful of games.

"We're just so young and inexperienced. Even our seniors are young because they haven't played a lot," Burtch said. "The only returning senior letterman is Ryan Killian. The others will be expected to play varsity. Basically, guys have the opportunity to work themselves into the rotation."

It's not bad to have an inside force such as Killian to fall back on, however. He had 370 points last year despite missing three games with an ankle injury. In his two years, Zajac has 721 points.

But he had a senior-laden class around him. Now, Zajac will be looked upon to provide the leadership given last year by Derek Codispot (334) and Jason Curry (236).

"He is becoming a tremendous leader," Burtch said. "He realizes he has to step into that role, too. Two years ago he looked around and it was his brother (Adam). Last year there were a lot of seniors. He's responded well and turned into a good all-around player. He works at it. He works on his dribbling, his shooting and his rebounding."

All three of those, and the leadership, will be a key part of the Rockets making it through the MCAC-AAA race. Last year, Slippery Rock was just 1-5 in league play and went 10-13 overall after going 1-7 down the stretch.

"Grove City and Sharon are just tremendous," Burtch said. "Sharon has great athletes and Gary (Revale) will have them playing defense like nobody else in the state. Coach (Don) Fee always has his kids playing deep into march. And Hickory is as good as any of us on a given night."

Assisting Burtch is Bob Book.