SLIPPERY ROCK — There it was, right in front of Emma Walter's eyes.

Her name was written beside the likes of Jence Rhoads and the other three starters on the Slippery Rock HighSchool girls basketball team.

"I thought, 'This is outrageous,'" Walter said. "I looked at Jence and she looked at me like she already knew. It was surprising."

It wouldn't have been so shocking to Walter, a senior forward for the Rockets, had she not taken more than a year off from the game.

Yet there she was in the starting lineup for the Rockets' season opener.

She has never left it.

It helps that she stands nearly 6 feet, 1 inch tall and has long arms to gather missed rebounds.

It also helps her mere presence in the paint can alter shots.

"Why did I start her?" said first-year coach Adrienne Orris. "I knew our weakness was going to be rebounding and inside presence, and I already had enough shooters. I didn't need her to score. I needed her to rebound and play defense.

"I don't think she realizes how much of a presence she is inside because of her height," the coach added.

Basketball has long been Walter's first love. A soccer player during the fall, she decided not to play last season as a junior.

As a sophomore, she played exclusively on the junior varsity team.

Even as late as this summer, she didn't think she would return to the court.

But she decided to give it a whirl again anyway.

"I just wanted to see if I would still like it," Walter said. "Of course, I did.

"My dad (Greg) said this was going to be a magical season, and that even if I don't play and just ride the bench, it would be worth being a part of."

Walter has done more than just keep a seat warm. While she is averaging only 2.2 points per game, she gets valuable rebounds and plays solid enough on defense to make a difference.

She is also one of only two seniors — Rhoads being the other — who sees significant minutes on a team that starts three freshmen and has a bench that features two freshmen and a sophomore.

Walter, though, found herself relating more with the underclassmen that the seniors.

That was due mostly to the fact she barely touched a basketball during her hiatus.

"I was as rusty as rusty could be," Walter said. "I think I picked up a basketball twice the whole time to shoot around in my back yard."

It took most of the season for Walter to shake off that rust, but things started clicking for her again right about the time things started clicking for the Rockets.

Walter enjoyed a solid game against Sharon in an upset win that started Slippery Rock on a six-game winning streak to end the regular season.

She had a 13-rebound game against OilCity late in the season.

The Rockets (15-9) open the District 10 Class AAA playoffs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night against Meadville (17-6) at Slippery Rock University's Morrow Field House.

"She definitely has improved a lot as the season has gone on," Orris said. "At the beginning, you could tell she was rusty, but she could get up and down the court and she was tall."

Orris said she didn't actively recruit Walter to play this season. It was all Walter's decision.

"She said something like, 'I have the height, I might as well do something with it,'" Orris said.