'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 3 -4 -- Tip-Off tournament       8 -- Reynolds       10 -- Seneca Valley       13 -- at Greenville       16 -- Kennedy Christian       20 -- Mercer       22 -- North Hills       28 -- at Fort LeBeouf Tournament       29 -- at Fort LeBeouf Tournament Jan. 3 -- Wilmington       6 -- at Reynolds       11 -- at Oil City       13 -- at Mercer       17 -- at Wilmington       20 -- at Erie East       24 -- Slippery Rock       27 -- at Sharon Feb. 3 -- at Hickory       5 -- at Taylor Alderdice       10 -- at Slippery Rock       14 -- Sharon       17 -- at Commodore Perry       21 -- Hickory

By The Herald Sports Staff

There is no doubt coach Roger Flynn has seen his share of success during his 20-year tenure at Grove City. His record of 417-134 gives merit to that.

But only a few times during his heralded career has Flynn's roster looked the way it does entering his 21st season at Grove City. Gone are all five starters and 66 percent of last year's offense, while just one senior and two juniors return.

"We're very young," Flynn said. "Most of our team this year will be our jayvee team from last year. We have a couple of older players with experience who will be our key players."

Gone are Stacie Harvey (310 points), Cara Denniston (270), Julie Laird (225), Jessica Clancey (112) and Morgan Ryan (48) who contributed greatly to the program during their careers.

"This has only happened a couple of times before," Flynn said. "It's very unusual to have to rely on that many sophomores and have so few juniors and seniors. That's very unusual for our program."

Emily Bashline is the team's lone senior, a 5-8 forward who scored 100 points last year off the bench. Bashline will guide a group of two juniors and nine sophomores.

"Emily has been a great leader," Flynn said. "She started the first minute of the first practice and has continued. The kids recognized throughout that she's going to be the leader."

Juniors Stacy Clelland (5-5) and Trish Krantz (5-11) each played last year and Krantz finished with 185 points and emerged as a solid outside threat.

After that, it's sophomores for Flynn. But he's pleased with the effort 5-2 point guard Amber McFeely and 6-1 center Chelsea Smith (69 points last year) put in during the off-season. McFeely "plays every day and works on her game," and Smith played all over the country with AAU team the Western Pennsylvania Bruins.

"(Those two) probably worked as hard in the off-season as anybody I've ever had," Flynn said. "I'd have to go back a long way to find two that match that."

They will be joined in the rotation by fellow sophomores Carly Denniston (5-7) and Angela Burk (5-8), each of whom saw varsity action last year, and Chalsie Redfoot (5-4) and Kristen Losasso (5-4). Other sophomores include Shannon O'Neil (5-3), Amanda Chutz (5-8) and Lisa Hammerschmidt (5-3),

Flynn knows with such a young team mistakes are bound to happen. He'll have to adjust accordingly.

"Early in the season we might make more mistakes than we normally would," Flynn said. "They're good players and they've worked hard, but they're only sophomores. I guess I'll have to learn we're going to make more mistakes earlier in the season."

As for the league, Flynn noted that Sharon is in the same boat as his Lady Eagles, heavy turnover at the top with a corps of youngsters who saw lots of action on the jayvee level. In jayvee games last year, the two split their head-to-head meetings.

"We have to look at Hickory and Slippery Rock as the teams who return most of their players so they probably become the early-season favorites. Sharon will be right in there, though, along with us. I expect Sharon and us to at least be capable of challenging Slippery Rock and Hickory," he said.

Flynn will be assisted once again by Mike Hostetler.