The first thing Pat McLaren did when he was named head football coach at Mercer High School earlier this summer was get on the phone.

He called kids - any potential able-bodied player he thought could help the football program. His effort worked as the Mustangs have a roster that is 45 strong after stumbling through a 2-7 season in 2004 with just 24 players.

Re-designing the Mustang logo was the second thing he did.

Change is good, particularly when the same-old, same-old is losing.

"We want to sell the kids on a new beginning," said McLaren, who served as an assistant coach at Slippery Rock High School for four seasons. "To change what happens here, you have to get them to start believing they can win."

The wins have been hard to come by for more than a decade at Mercer. The last winning season was in 1993 and the team is a meager 17-71 since 1996.

In the last five years, the Mustangs have posted an 8-40 record, including an 0-10 campaign in 2000.

It's a big challenge for McLaren, who has been coaching football for 17 seasons, but will enter his first year as a head coach.

McLaren, who lives and works at George Junior Republic in Grove City with his wife, Sheila, and three young daughters, had always eyed becoming a head coach at some point.

He began to realize it wasn't going to happen at Slippery Rock with Clyde Conti roaming the sidelines.

"Clyde will probably coach there forever," McLaren said. "He's been coaching as long as I've been alive."

So when the Mercer job came open, it was natural for McLaren to pursue it.

His brother Andy, who is now one of his assistant coaches, lives in the district and McLaren, who will turn 39 next month, has always had an interest in the program.

McLaren told Conti and the other coaches about his desire to apply for the job. McLaren said they all told him to "give it a shot."

"We're very excited about Pat McLaren getting the job at Mercer," Conti said. "He'll do a good job there."

McLaren coached the running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs at Slippery Rock for the last four seasons, helping the Rockets to two District 10 championships and the PIAA Class AA semifinals in 2003.

McLaren began his coaching career at his alma mater, Lakeview High School. He spent six seasons there before moving on to Grove City College for two years. After that stay, he coached at Thiel for four more years before landing at Slippery Rock.

Now, in his first season with Mercer, he will have a formidable challenge.

But he's attacked it head-on, recruiting harder than any college head coach would.

"It's definitely going to take us awhile," McLaren said. "Right away, we began recruiting kids. Mercer has had strong track and wrestling programs, so we went after those kids. I spent a lot of time on the phone.

"We had to get the numbers up to stabilize and solidify the program."

With that mission accomplished for the most part, McLaren is trying to find the right combination of bodies on the field.

He said the Mustangs would try to overcome some of their size deficiencies with an option attack on offense and an aggressive approach on defense.

"We have to keep football exciting for them," McLaren said. "This may sound like coachspeak, but everyone wants to look at success in terms of wins and losses. We just want to get better every day, inch by inch."

There is one date on the Mercer schedule already circled. That's Oct. 7 when the Mustangs host Slippery Rock.

"That will be very strange," McLaren said. "I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time it's going to be kind of bittersweet. I have a lot of good memories there with Pops (assistant coach Glenn Hazlett) and Bud (Sarver). It'll be fun."