SLIPPERY ROCK — As a guard on her high school basketball team at Union City, there were times when Adrienne Orris didn't have much fun.

"I had a negative experience as a high school basketball player," Orris said. "Why I went into coaching was so no one else would have that kind of experience."

Those not-so-fun times as a player stuck with her long after her final jump shot at Union City.

Orris played four years at Grove City College and coached for three years at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Va.

When she came back home to Western Pennsylvania and Slippery Rock High in 2006 to coach the Rockets girls basketball team, her negative experience in high school was still on her mind.

"One of the reasons I coach is not necessarily wins and losses," Orris said. "You want your players to look back at their experience as one of the greatest times in their life, not as a negative."

Orris has strived to follow that credo for the past four years.

She has succeeded.

That's one of the reasons why Orris was named 2009-10 Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Coach of the Year by the sports department.

Slippery Rock went 23-3 this season, won the District 10 Class AAA title for the second time in Orris' tenure and reached the second round of the PIAA playoffs, where it lost to Hopewell.

Orris has posted a 77-29 record in her four seasons with the Rockets.

"She let us play the way we wanted to play," said senior forward Sarah Cessar. "She trusted us. You could tell how much she respected us and how much we respected her."

Orris has had to overcome many unique situations in her tenure with the Rockets.

She inherited a team led by senior Jence Rhoads, who is now a star for Vanderbilt University, and a slew of inexperienced freshmen.

During that first season, Orris and Slippery Rock overcame a slow start to win the district title and advance to the state quarterfinals.

The next season, Orris had no juniors or seniors on the roster.

"We know her better than anyone else because we came in with her as freshmen," Cessar said. "We didn't know what to expect. But as freshmen and sophomores she looked out for us."

Senior guard Ali Doyle remembers how hard it was for her, her teammates and Orris during that second year and how their coach guided them through those turbulent times.

"We were sophomores, the oldest ones, and were trying to be leaders," Doyle said. "We all wanted to step up and be the leader and, at one practice, everything kind of boiled over and we were in each other's faces.

"(Coach Orris) took us out one by one in the hallway and talked to us, and we had a meeting the next day. After that, everything was all better," she added.

By conquering those growing pains, the team grew closer. Cessar said the six seniors on this year's team are all best friends and are tight with their coach.

That led the Rockets to one of the best seasons in school history this year.

Orris maintained a casual approach, reinforced the "have fun" motto and took as much pressure off them as she could.

The squad responded with a 12-game winning streak in the middle of the season and the most victories since 1994-95.

Because she was so close with her first class, losing to Hopewell in the state playoffs and seeing the end of their 106-game run was even more difficult.

"I've been trying to come to terms with that," Orris said. "I'm still kind of in denial."

But Orris said she knows all good things must end.

"You can't keep them forever," she said. "But they can leave knowing as a coach I will always support them. What I will remember most is the smiles."