Sophia Coffaro and Bryce Bennett have become a big part of the Slippery Rock High girls basketball team this season. The Rockets have rallied around them and have made them feel a part of their run to the District 10 5A title and a berth into the PIAA playoffs, which begin for Slippery Rock Saturday.

SLIPPERY ROCK — Bryce Bennett and Sophia Coffaro will never play basketball.

They'll never dribble.

They'll never shoot.

They'll never get a steal or take a charge.

They'll never make a game-winning shot.

Yet the two, Bryce from Grove City and Sophia from Slippery Rock, are still a huge part of the Slippery Rock High girls basketball team.

Bryce, 10, has a very rare, genetic brain disorder caused by a mutated gene. It's progressive and there is no cure.

Bryce is confined to a wheelchair, unable to move. He has up to 100 seizures a day. He can't speak.

But those around the Slippery Rock girls basketball team have embraced him and Sophia. They believe Bryce is aware of what's going on around him.

“He knows. He knows love,” said Tara Codispot, Bryce's mother and a former standout basketball player at Slippery Rock. “He knows those girls are around. I would love to see what he would say.”

To find out more about Bryce, Sophia and the Slippery Rock girls basketball team, read Friday's Butler Eagle.