SLIPPERYROCK — Eager to leave Virginia and that state's curious off-season basketball policies, Adrienne Orris was downright giddy when her friends back in Pennsylvania told her the SlipperyRock HighSchool girls basketball position was opened by the school board.

Orris, 26, quickly threw her hat in the ring.

It paid off.

Orris, who played high school basketball at UnionCity near Erie and her college hoops at Grove City College until her graduation in 2003, was named the Rockets' coach last week.

"It's a very good situation I'm walking into," Orris said. "I know District 10. I wanted to come home."

Orris had to wait until Tuesday to come home. Her last day at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Va., where she spent three years as a science teacher and girls basketball coach, was Monday.

"That was about the No. 18 reason to come back to the area," Orris said.

While 18 reasons to bolt Virginia and Patrick Henry HighSchool is a bit of an exaggeration, there were some good reasons why Orris longed for Western Pennsylvania.

No. 1 on the list was the Virginia policy that prohibits coaches from doing any off-season activities with their teams.

"I basically coached them from October until March. That was it," Orris said.

Orris said she has always felt that the off-season is a very important time in the development of a team and the athlete and is pleased she now can work with her players in the summer.

Orris met some of her Slippery Rock players Tuesday.

"I moved (Tuesday), and met some of the girls (Tuesday) night," she said.

Her message to the players she did meet was simple.

"My goal is to start fresh," Orris said.

Orris is taking over a team that compiled a 57-19 record over the last three seasons under former coach Gene Rodgers.

Last season, the Rockets went 21-7 and lost to Moon, then guided by new Seneca Valley girls coach Kelly Matthews, in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.

Orris, who also will teach in the science department at SlipperyRock, is well aware of Rockets point guard Jence Rhoads, however.

Rhoads will enter her senior season as a two-time Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She averaged 21.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 7 assists as a junior last season.

She has scored 1,493 points in her career.

Having Rhoads around was not lost on Orris.

"It's definitely a unique position," Orris said. "I know I do have a lot of talent on this team and it allows me a lot of flexibility in what we do. It's not a common situation for me. You don't usually inherit that caliber of player in her senior season.

"Hopefully, I'll be able to make her an even stronger player."

Orris said she doesn't subscribe to one coaching style. She likes to be flexible.

One of the things she intends to emphasize is aggressiveness on defense.

That was one of the things she learned from her college coach, Melissa Lamie.

"At Grove City, we had a focus on defense," Orris said. "That's the thing I gleaned the most. That's what makes a mediocre team a good team and a good team a great team."