Mike Sikorski, right, seen here being greeted by his Slippery Rock University teammates after hitting a home run during an NCAA tournament game in 2000, was hired as the head baseball coach at Sharpsville High.

SHARPSVILLE — Mike Sikorski finally has the coaching position he's wanted — and the pressure to go with it.

Sikorski, 30, a former standout baseball player at Knoch High and Slippery Rock University, was named head baseball coach at Sharpsville High School.

He has been an assistant under veteran coach Kirk Scurpa for the past three seasons. Sharpsville has reached the District 10 Class AAchampionship game in each of the past 12 years and won it during most of them.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a little pressure there,"Sikorski admitted. "Our personnel will be different next year. We don't have the big power hitter or power pitcher anymore.

"We're going to have to win playing small ball. That's a little different for us. But it's a challenge I'm looking forward to."

Scurpa, an all-America pitcher at SRU in 1988-89, had been Sharpsville's baseball coach for 18 years. He became principal at the high school four years ago.

"The board let him coach for the past three years, but feels it's a conflict of interest and won't let him do it anymore," Sikorski said. "They just want him to concentrate on being principal.

"Coach Scurpa didn't have a problem with this. In fact, I think he agreed to give it up now because he wanted me to have the job when he got out of it. I'm inheriting a top-level program and I'm excited about it."

After graduating from Knoch in 1996, Sikorski played two years of baseball at Gulf Coast Community College in Florida before coming to SRU.

As The Rock's right fielder, he hit .361 with eight home runs and 52 RBIin 2000 and hit 12 homers, collected 44 RBIand batted .354 as a senior in 2001.

Considered a candidate for baseball's amateur draft that year, Sikorski was passed over by major league clubs.

"I did some landscaping for a while, then became a health and physical education teacher at Sharpsville," he said. "I've always wanted to be a baseball coach.

"I have no aspirations of coaching above high school. I want to stay at this level."

Sharpsville's baseball program has sent numerous players to college ball over the past few years, including current West Virginia University pitcher Jarryd Summers.