Fabulous 50th
Senior quarterback Bailey Mertens is well aware of the history of the football program at Slippery Rock High.
He is also cognizant that this 2016 team will have more eyes than ever set upon it.
It's the 50th year of varsity football at the school. And with that comes a certain degree of scrutiny.
During each home game, a group of alumni from one of the five decades of football will be honored at the game.
“Bringing in alumni this year, that's a lot of pressure,” Mertens said. “Fifty years — they're not going to want to see us lose.”
Mertens, though, welcomes it.
“No pressure,” he says, “no diamonds.”
There have been plenty of diamonds formed by pressure in the 49 years so far.
No more so than in that first season in 1966 when the late Bill Beatty, a Slippery Rock Athletic High Hall-of-Famer, formed the program.
Beatty had no coaches. No uniforms. No equipment. All he had was 70 players eager to begin a football program.
“I had good kids here,” Beatty said in 2006. “We got it going after the first year. We had to rent equipment, buy blocking dummies. We got all the best equipment we could get.”
Slippery Rock lost its first two games in that first season before winning the next two, including its first win at home on Oct. 1, 1966 against Lakeview with a 13-6 triumph.
Beatty coached for six seasons, posting an 18-33-1 record.
Eleven coaches have come since, including Larry Wendereusz, who is in his first year this season.
Wendereusz is also aware of how special the 50th year of football is to the program and the community.
“I'd like everyone of those groups (of alumni returning) to come into our locker room before the game and let our players recognize what Slippery Rock football represents,” Wendereusz said. “Our boosters are putting a booklet together for next year to including this 50th year. It will be a 50-year program of pictures and artifacts of all 50 years.
“I think being a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kid, I don't think they fully grasp it,” Wendereusz added. “But we've talked about it.”
Travis Sarver, who played for the Rockets from 2000-03 and served as an assistant coach under Brendan Hathaway before ascending to the head coaching position last year when Hathaway left for Moon, also has a unique perspective of the program.
Sarver resigned after a 5-6 season to focus more on his young family. But he remembers his time as a little kid, going to Slippery Rock practices with his father, Bud, who was an assistant coach for the school for more than two decades.
“Some of my fondest memories were going to camp when my dad was coaching,” Travis Sarver said. “As a young kid, there were guys I looked up to like Ron Duffy and Ian Shirey and Howie Watson. That was one of my favorite times.”
When Sarver put on the red and gray of the Slippery Rock uniform himself in high school, he was a force at fullback and safety, helping the Rockets to two District 10 championships under coach Clyde Conti in 2002 and 2003.
The 2003 team won 12 games and advanced to the PIAA semifinals, where the Rockets lost to Darrelle Revis-led Aliquippa, 28-15.Slippery Rock had a 15-14 lead in the fourth quarter of that game.Sarver wonders if there are any current Rockets who looked up to him and those teams when they were just starting out.“I'd like to think that happened,” Sarver said. “I'm glad I was able to give back to the program.”Rich Lee was also a part of those successful teams at Slippery Rock in the early 2000s until he graduated in 2004.“Honestly, I still miss those days,” he said.Lee was a standout tight end and linebacker, but his college career at Gannon University was derailed by concussions and poor teams during his four years there.That made him appreciate his days at Slippery Rock even more.“It was just great to play and win with the kids you grew up with,” Lee said.He still has every game of the 2003 season on tape.“I still watch them often,” Lee said, laughing. “Maybe a little too often. I sometimes know exactly what will happen next.”Slippery Rock has also enjoyed some recent success.After an 0-10 season in Hathaway's first year as coach, Slippery Rock went 7-4 the next season and then began one of its most dominant runs in school history.The Rockets were 30-4 from 2012-14 with one District 10 playoff win.Slippery Rock has made the playoffs for five straight seasons — the longest stretch in school history.Slippery Rock can also boast of a renovated stadium complete with a new press box, new bleachers, new synthetic turf field and a new track circling it.“It was nice to see that. It's something special,” Sarver said of the renovated facility. “It's special for these kids to have a facility like that.”When Travis Croll played in the mid-80s, many things, including the facility itself, were different.Croll, a 1986 graduate, was a junior on the first truly dominant Rockets' team in 1984 under Joe Walton. That team went 11-1 and won the program's first playoff game, a 21-20 win over Riverview in overtime.“We had about a half-dozen guys from that team go on to the next level,” Croll said.Croll was one of them. He enjoyed a standout career at Grove City College. He was an Academic All-American with the Wolverines.Croll said he is thankful there was even a program to play for when he was in high school.“It's credit to Beatty family,” Croll said. “Bill Beatty in particularly. Without him, it just wouldn't have been there.“It's a little scary to think I'm on the early side of the 50,” Croll added, laughing.
