SLIPPERY ROCK — There were times when John Tabisz could only shake his head and chuckle when looking at his Slippery Rock High girls basketball team in relation to their opponent.

“We looked like little kids out there,” Tabisz said.

In certain ways, they were.

The Rockets started four sophomores and a freshman for most of the season.

The team lost one of its top returning post players in sophomore Sedona Campbell months before the season and then were without their leading scorer and unquestioned team leader, junior Marissa Siebka, for all but eight games because of a torn ACL.

Still, Slippery Rock and its starting lineup of players not old enough to drive finished second in the competitive Region 5-AAA in District 10 and played well in a loss to Villa Maria in the playoffs.

For that, Tabisz was named Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.

Tabisz also won the award last year and edged Moniteau's Matt Stebbins and Karns City's Dave Kerschbaumer this season.

“I have to give all the credit to those girls,” Tabisz said. “You would think as young as they were that they would panic. But they never did. We lost Sedona this summer and then Marissa goes down and we had to water some things down. But we went out and played really well. It was remarkable.”

Tabisz said he had to tweak the way he dealt with his players because of their youth.

Tabisz said Siebka, even though she was injured, was invaluable in helping him know when to push buttons and when to take his foot off the gas.

“She would always tell me, 'Stay positive. They aren't ready for it yet,'” Tabisz said. “There was a game when she couldn't be there, but she texted me to remind me to stay positive. She was the one who would hold on to me so I didn't get a technical.”

Tabisz also said his assistant coach, former Grove City High and Slippery Rock University standout guard Amber Osborn, helped him tremendously.

“It's a godsend whenever you can get an assistant like Amber,” Tabisz said. “She put in all our inbound plays for the region games. She's going to be a tremendous head coach someday. She's like a daughter to me.”

Osborn shares the same affection for Tabisz.

“We feed off each other,” Osborn said. “He lets me do a lot of things that a lot of head coaches wouldn't let their assistant coaches do and I'm grateful for that. I have a lot of respect for him and I know he has a lot of respect for me. It's fun being his assistant because I trust what he does.”

Osborn said Tabisz deserves a lot of credit for keeping the team focused after the adversity of losing arguably two of its most impactful players to injury.

“We could have crumbled, but they really dug down deep,” Osborn said. “We stuck with what we did well.”

That was perimeter shooting.

Sophomores Jenna Whitmer and Steph Croll combined for 85 3-pointers.

Whitmer in particular developed quickly as the season progressed, averaging 15.3 points per game.

“It was just a wonderful year, even though we lost in the first round of the playoffs,” Tabisz said.