'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 6 -- at Brookfield       9 -- at Commodore Perry       13 -- Oil City       16 -- at Grove City       20 -- Slippery Rock       23 -- McDowell       28-29 -- Girard Tournament Jan. 3 -- West Middlesex       6 -- at Commodore Perry       10 -- Franklin       13 -- at Slippery Rock       17 -- at West Middlesex       20 -- Wilmington       22 -- Mount Alvernia       24 -- at Mercer       27 -- at Greenville       31 -- Reynolds Feb. 3 -- at Sharpsville       7 -- at Wilmington       10 -- Mercer       14 -- Greenville       17 -- at Reynolds       21 -- Sharpsville

By The Herald Sports Staff

For a coach who lost four starters and another key role player to graduation, veteran Kennedy Christian High girls basketball mentor Father Rick Tomasone sounds awfully optimistic.

"I'm really excited about this season,'' Tomasone (320-77) said regarding the prospects of his 15th year at the helm.

"These types of teams are very exciting and what keeps coaches young,'' Tomasone said, adding with a laugh, "but these type teams also can give coaches gray hairs.''

Although a quintet of key components from last season's 26-3 MCAC champion and District 10 Class AA runner-up squad graduated, Tomasone is energized by what he hopes will be a club that continually improves throughout the coming campaign.

"Were going to be good,'' Tomasone forecasted. "It's just, right now, we're very young, so we're doing things now I haven't seen in our gym for a couple of years because we've been such a veteran team the last few years. We're just trying to grow up a little bit together, but I don't mean that in bad sense,'' Tomasone emphasized. "It just takes time to mature. I told one of my kids (at a preseason scrimmage against Villa Maria), 'If I could take my understanding of what we want to do and put it in her head, we'd be all right.' But that's not how that works.''

Kennedy will be keyed by two-year letterwinner Alicia Camouse, a 5-foot-7 senior point guard who averaged 4.3 points and 3.6 assists per '98-99 outing while recording 53 steals.

"Alicia is a veteran point guard who started for us in most of the games last year, though she got hurt at the end of year,'' Tomasone recalled. "But she's very quick, handles the ball well, and her forte is setting everything up for us.

"The other kids, right now, are sort of establishing what roles on the team they'll be able to fill and learning each other's roles, so it's hard to talk about strengths and weakenesses because they're so young,'' Tomasone added.

The other returning letterwinners include 5-7 senior forward Leslie Necastro (32 points, 40 rebounds, 10 steals), 6-2 junior pivot Erin Frankovich (2.5 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 16 blocked shots), 5-5 junior guard Maureen Meier (2.7 ppg., 1.6 apg, 33 steals), and 5-7 sophomore Leanne Madden (40 points, 34 assists, 19 steals). Tomasone said the latter pair can play either guard spot. Madden, the former St. Joseph's standout, has been stricken with both Legionnaries' Disease and mononucleosis, but is hoping to regain full strength by mid-December.

The top newcomers expected to make an immediate impact as part of Tomasone's eight-player rotation include 5-8 junior swingman Katie Fill (14 rebounds), 5-6 junior guard Laura Steltzer (14 assists, 11 steals), and 5-7 sophomore forward Carla Mastrian.

"We had a really good summer,'' Tomasone related. "We tried to get an awful lot of people playing time and work a lot of combinations out on the floor to get them as much experience and to get as much of a look at different combinations as we could.''

Tomasone, who has led Kennedy to a dozen 20-win seasons, is taking a pragmatic preseason approach.

"Sometimes when you have a veteran team, that team doesn't really improve all that much from the beginning of the season to the end of the season because they've already been out on the court and they have a real good understanding of what to expect and they just need to sharpen up. But young teams have the opportunity to improve drastically, and that's what we're hoping for,'' Tomasone emphasized, summarizing, "They want to be good -- real good -- and that's a very good indication of where we can be by end of season.''

Tomasone, who has only 14 girls -- junior varsity and varsity combined in the program -- will be assisted by Dolly Szugye, who previously coached at Notre Dame elementary.