SLIPPERYROCK — Ten years ago, Adrienne Orris was sitting in the stands of some forgotten high school, watching some forgotten state playoff basketball game with her father, Ken, at her side.

That was the ritual in the waning days of winter for the Orris family. Catch a state playoff game, dream about playing in one some day.

Orris, now 26, never got a chance to play in a PIAA game. As a guard for the Union City High School Fighting Bears girls basketball team — coached by her father — she longed to feel the pulse from a rabid playoff crowd and experience the heart-pumping excitement of a do-or-die postseason contest.

Instead, she had to watch from a perch on distant bleacher.

Ten years later, Orris is much closer to the state playoff action, this time as a first-year coach of the SlipperyRock HighSchool girls basketball team.

"My dream has always been to play at Hershey," Orris said. "I never played with a team that was capable of making it this far. And I always have watched those games, and I always wanted to be in them, and I was jealous of everyone who had that opportunity.

"I think it means the most to me that these girls have the opportunity to do that."

The state championship game this season is at PennState University, not Hershey. Geography doesn't matter to Orris, though.

It's the journey that counts.

And the journey has been an interesting one.

A year ago, Orris was coaching in Virginia and Slippery Rock had finished a 21-7 season after a loss to Moon in the first round of the state playoffs.

She had no idea that circumstances would bring her back to Western Pennsylvania and to District 10.

Gene Rodgers was let go as the Rockets coach despite a stellar record. It was a controversial decision and one marked by a decided split in the community.

Orris stepped into the caldron with a simple plan.

"There was controversy. I never really was filled in on it," Orris said. "I had that choice and I chose not to know."

Many wondered what a 26-year-old inexperienced coach could offer a team with a star player in Jence Rhoads that the previous coach couldn't.

It didn't help that Orris stands just 5-foot-1 and looks younger than her 26 years.

"I knew being young, and looking younger than I am, that people would ask that," she said. "When I was a junior and a senior in high school, my experience started there. I've been to the state finals more years than a lot of coaches who die when they are 80 years old. I've watched the greatest players in Pennsylvania play on that floor. I know what it takes. And I think I'm more driven because I didn't have a team in high school that could get there."

Orris believes this one can.

And why not? After a slow start, Orris has revamped the team and has led the Rockets on an 11-game winning streak, a District 10 championship and the first state playoff win in 10 seasons.

Slippery Rock (19-9) will play Lewistown (18-9), a team that Orris spent many nights watching in state playoff action in seasons past, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Central Cambria HighSchool in Ebensburg.

"It was a goal to get these kids to go as far as possible," Orris said. "But, in watching them this summer, I knew we had a long ways to go. The amount of effort that I've put in this year has been incredible just to get them this far."

Part of that decision was to go young. Very young. She starts three freshmen. A sophomore and two more freshmen are the first players off her bench.

It's her ability to relate to the younger players that is one of her strengths, said assistant coach Emily Skoczlas.

"She's on the same level with them," Skoczlas said. "She knows how to treat them. She's involved with them with their school work. She helps them make signs. She's active in their lives."

She also has added a calmness to the bench. Orris rarely shouts. Instead, she claps her hands with encouragement and shoots looks to her players that seem to speak louder than words.

"She brought enthusiasm and energy to the team," Rhoads said. "She brought her knowledge and a different perspective to the game.

"She's a teacher by nature, so I think that helps her keep her cool and keep her temper with everyone and everything that goes on out there."

Orris' only lament is that the season is a fleeting one. Even if the Rockets win a state title, there are only four more games remaining.

"Since the day I started, we have learned something new every week," Orris said. "And we're not done. Unfortunately, I have to let them go at some point."