Despite posting a 57-19 record in three years, Gene Rodgers apparently is out as Slippery Rock High School girls basketball coach after the school board opened the position at its meeting Monday.

Rodgers guided the Rockets to a 21-7 record this season, including the program's first District 10 championship game and state tournament appearances in 10 years.

"I was shocked when I heard about this,"Rodgers said. "We get to the District 10 finals and state playoffs, the boys team was 4-20, and the girls job is the only one opened up?

"I don't know what else to say."

Slippery Rock's girls posted a 7-12 record in 2002-03. Rodgers took over the following year and produced won-loss records of 18-6, 18-6 and 21-7.

Slippery Rock athletic director Cory Hake said the number of girls participating in the program may have played a factor in the decision to open the position.

"There's been no freshman team here in two years,"Hake said. "I know the numbers were a concern.

"I can't say I was surprised by this decision. They (the board) just want to go in another direction, I guess."

There were 16 girls in Slippery Rock's varsity and junior varsity program this season.

John Cooper, Rodgers' varsity assistant coach, said Rodgers wanted to have a freshman team.

"He told the athletic director to get a ninth-grade schedule in place and nothing ever materialized,"Cooper said.

Cooper coached Slippery Rock's seventh-grade girls team to an unbeaten record in 2004-05. Those girls were unbeaten as eighth-graders this year.

"Go in another direction? What other direction do they want to go in?,"Cooper asked. "I always thought the right direction was winning.

"I don't believe this. I'm dumbfounded. Gene has not been abusive with the girls, he doesn't swear in practice or at games. He is intense, but that's a good thing.

"If you're not passionate about what you do, you probably shouldn't be doing it,"Cooper added.

Rodgers said the program's numbers have been affected by the traveling team at the grade school level.

"When there's five or six girls being hand picked that young and being told they're the future of Slippery Rock girls basketball, there's a problem,"he said. "Those same girls play together all the way through the system. ... By the time all the other girls are freshmen, they've lost interest."

Rodgers was told he can re-apply for the position and is considering doing so.

"It's still the job I prefer because it's the job I have right now," he said. "If it doesn't work out at Slippery Rock, I'll look at other openings in the area."

Rodgers was boys basketball coach at Butler for three years, leading the Golden Tornado to a 20-9 record and the WPIALchampionship game in 2000. He was replaced by current Golden Tornado coach Joe Lewandowski after posting records of 6-18 and 7-17 the following two years.

Despite the possibility of losing a second coaching position, Rodgers said he has not soured on the profession.

"This sort of stuff comes with the territory these days," he said. "All it takes is a disgruntled parent or two to complain about a coach yelling at kids, working them too hard or whatever, and the position gets opened up.

"There's no loyalty to coaches anymore. Very few coaches get to stay in the same place for a long time anymore.

'It's all about teaching kids. That's what I love about coaching and I want to do it again,"Rodgers added.

If Rodgers does return as Slippery Rock's coach, Cooper said he would rejoin him on the bench.

"Absolutely,"Cooper said. "This was my 34th year of coaching. I'm not going to give it up just because somebody on the board doesn't know what he's doing.

"Apparently, this school board doesn't go to the games because they obviously don't know what's going on."