SLIPPERY ROCK — Just call him The Constant.

Slippery Rock University track and field and cross country coach John Papa is in his 27th year with the program.

He’s gone through a dozen paid assistant coaches and more than 100 volunteer and student assistants. Four of his former assistants — Bill Ross at Allegheny, Cory Aldrich at Carnegie Mellon, Jeff Magley at Sacramento State (Calif.) and Michele Curcio at Lafayette — are now head or assistant coaches at other collegiate track programs.

He’s coached hundreds of student-athletes at The Rock.

And all Papa does is one thing.

Win.

During his tenure at The Rock, Papa has produced 21 PSAC team titles, 18 runner-up finishes and two East Regional cross country crowns. He’s coached nine Division II national champions, 96 All-Americans and 234 individual PSAC champions.

“It’s all about his attitude,” ninth-year SRU assistant coach Bill Jordan said. “John just enjoys life and parlays that into his coaching.

“He gets good athletes, keeps it fun, maintains a family atmosphere — and the kids stick around.”

Virtually all of Papa’s volunteer and student assistant coaches are former track and field athletes at The Rock. Butler graduate Mason McLaughlin, who won a PSAC championship as part of the 4x100 meter relay team here, is one of them.

“I wanted to stay a part of this,” McLaughlin said. “I enjoy the sport and I still have a lot of friends on the team.

“I wasn’t ready to walk away from this. I want to get into coaching down the road in some sport and there’s no better place to start than right here.”

Papa has little scholarship money to work with, but repeatedly puts together rosters of well over 100 athletes. He has roughly 130 athletes on this year’s team and had 160 a couple of years ago.

“We had to turn people away for the first time back then,” he recalled. “You can only enter so many kids in each event at a meet and we were at the point where kids wouldn’t get a chance to compete.

“Our numbers are one of the big reasons for our success. We always have the largest roster in the conference, sometimes twice as many kids, so we can specialize and play to our strengths.”

While Papa does recruit, many of the athletes come to him.

SRU’s curriculum may have something to do with that.

“When you look at what our school excels in ... sports management, exercise science, physical and elementary education, physical therapy ... student athletes are attracted to those fields,” Jordan said. “That’s a plus in our favor.”

So is the relatively low cost of attending Slippery Rock.

“I was offered a half to three-quarters scholarship to go to Bucknell,” McLaughlin recalled. “I didn’t get any money here and it was still cheaper.”

Papa admitted he has lost some recruits due to lack of scholarship funding.

“Another school offers a kid $1,000 or so in scholarship aid and I can’t give him anything, yeah, I’ve lost some of those,” the coach said.

“But our tradition stands for something. We get more than our share.”

Not only do SRU’s track and field athletes stick it out for four years. They shine in the classroom while doing so.

Last year’s Rock men had a cumulative grade point average of well over 3.0. The women’s track team was over 3.5. SRU’s track team often wins PSAC academic awards and it almost annually carries the highest team GPA of all the athletic teams on campus.

“High academics are an expectation in this program. It’s a standard,” McLaughlin said. “That’s another reason why so many top athletes come here. The reputation of academic excellence and the coaches’ commitment to that is well-known.

“Even though the distance people, the sprinters, throwers and jumpers don’t practice together. we’re all here for a common goal. We all know we have to do our share.”

Meagan Shadeck is in her seventh year as an assistant under Papa. She was a standout athlete at Wisconsin-Whitewater, a Division III school.

“A lot of his success is because of his hard work,” Papa said. “He’s always recruiting. Everywhere you go, somebody knows him.

“He always finds the good athletes and knows how to develop and get the most out of them.”

Shadeck said the volunteer and student assistants play a vital role as well. Most of them have aspirations of entering the coaching profession down the road.

“With this many athletes, you gotta have them. We’d be lost without them,” she said.

Jordan agreed.

“There’s probably 15 or so coaches up here all the time,” he said. “Despite our (roster) numbers, a kid can still get one-on-one coaching time with somebody. No one gets lost in the shuffle.”

Papa’s success isn’t lost on himself.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “I’ve had some great assistants. We’re busy up here all year long, so our coaches have to be committed to putting in the time and they do.

“Ultimately, it comes down to the kids. They’ve made the reputation here. They’re the ones who go out and do it.”