SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University's football program has strong roots.

And they've grown into a powerful coaching tree.

“When you're a smaller school like us, to have good success, you surround yourself with good players and great coaches,” SRU head coach Shawn Lutz said.

“You win with good people — and other programs want those people.”

The Rock football program currently has more than 30 people coaching in high school or college ball. At least half of them are former SRU players.

The bulk of those didn't play for The Rock with the original intention of one day joining the coaching fraternity.

“Rock football is well-respected statewide, regionally and nationally,” retired SRU coach George Mihalik said. “Other people want our guys.

“Players are majoring in other career paths while they're here. Some of them wind up like us, wanting to get into a career that helps young people.”

Coaching is a people business, after all.

“I text former players. keeping up with what they're doing,” Mihalik said. “In terms of our coaches, we've always wanted good men first.

“We may interview someone for a position on our staff who is great with X's and O's, but doesn't have the character we look for. A coaching staff of quality people can certainly influence players to enter the profession.”

That happened with former Rock quarterback Jared Buck before he even got to SRU. Now the wide receivers coach at The Rock, Buck played for WPIAL coaching legend Bob Palko at West Allegheny.

“He was able to change a lot of kids' lives, kids who didn't come from a whole lot,” Buck said of Palko. “He made me want to do the same thing.”

A 2015 SRU graduate, Buck joined the coaching staff the season after he graduated. Then he used his safety management degree to join the work force.

That didn't last long.

“I wasn't happy with what I was doing,” Buck said. “I came back, worked on my masters in education and got back into coaching.”

Slippery Rock High School graduate Tony Papley graduated from SRU in 2013. He talked to Mihalik while playing for him and “knew I wanted to get into coaching.”

Former SRU assistant coach Jason Makrinos — now defensive coordinator at Findlay — was coaching at Duquesne when Papley graduated. He got Papley a graduate assistant coaching job there.

After coaching a few years at Duquesne, Papley was recently hired as defensive coordinator at Edinboro.

“Coach Mihalik, Coach Lutz, Coach Makrinos ... They all made me want to be a coach,” Papley said. “It was always family first, then academics, then football with that staff.

“That's the blueprint I'm always going to follow. And (Duquesne head coach) Jerry Schmitt helped my career tremendously.”

Larry Wilson, a 1999 Rock graduate, has been an assistant coach at California (Pa.) University for 16 years. He now coaches wide receivers and is special teams coordinator.

“My whole life has been based around sports,” Wilson said. “I was a water boy before I was allowed to play tackle football.”

Wilson served an internship with the Pittsburgh Pirates, working in ticket operations. He became an account executive with ESPN Radio “and after six months, I knew it wasn't for me.”

He attended California (Pa.) to get his masters in education, then became a long-term substitute teacher and offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Frazier High School.

“Then, at 24, I became the youngest head coach in the state,” Wilson said.

While completing his masters, then-Cal head coach John Luckhardt offered Wilson a chance to join the Vulcans' staff. He's been there ever since.

Now coaching against The Rock every year, Wilson still relishes his years at SRU.

“George Mihalik is one of the most influential people in my life,” he said. “I came from a small school, he gave me a chance as a walk-on, then I earned my scholarship. I learned what hard work can do.”

Quindell Dean is a 2013 Rock graduate now working in quality control and recruiting for Pitt's football program. He coached at SRU, Seton Hill, Fairmont State and a small college in Virginia before joining Pitt's staff.

I did a lot of growing up at SRU,” Dean said. “I used to work in juvenile placement. I've always worked with kids.

“What coaches did for me, I want to do for kids.”

Mike Bongivengo, a 2013 Rock graduate, is following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Both were football coaches. Hisfather, Frank Bongivengo, was on SRU's staff when Mike played there.

“My grandfather (Frank Sr.) still coaches at Neshannock High School,” Mike said. “My father is coaching with me now.”

Mike Bongivengo is offensive coordinator at Westminster College.

“Coach Mihalik treated us more as people than players. Coach Lutz and Mihalik were players' coaches and that's what I want to be,” Bongivengo said in recalling his college days.”

A graduate assistant coach at SRU in 2014, Bongivengo went on to coach high school football in North and South Carolina before joining Westminster.

SRU grad Terry Grossetti, now the strength coach at Youngstown State, said he “loves the college setting ... You see such growth in younger players.”

Jayson Nickson, a 2011 Rock grad, was an environmental science major. He now coaches defensive backs at Marietta.

“I just couldn't give up football. I love the mentorship of it,” he said.

Shawn Rohrer, a 1998 Rock grad, is defensive coordinator at Saint Vincent. Fellow SRU grad Joe Phillips coaches the defensive line there.

Rohrer has been in coaching for 22 years, having also worked at SRU, Shepherd, California (Pa.) and Washington & Jefferson.

“My senior year in college is when I decided I wanted to do it,” Rohrer said of coaching. “I was spoiled. I always had good coaching.

“When I was at SRU, that same coaching staff stayed together for all those years. That's history now. The way coaches move around today, that will never happen again.”

A.J. Hopp, a 2011 SRU grad, is offensive line coach at Southeastern Louisiana.

“My senior year at The Rock, I was working with some of the younger linemen ... It just clicked in,” Hopp said. “I spent more time around the coaches. I enjoyed it. I wanted to join that fraternity.”

Hopp coached at Florida Atlantic, Mississippi State and Houston before joining SE Louisiana.

Lutz believed much of The Rock coaching tree began with longtime head coach Mihalik and longtime assistants Jay Foster, Joe Kopnisky, Vic Campagna, Joe Walton, Jim McElhaney and Bill Horstman.

“They were the model,” Lutz said. “Everything just grew from there ... and it's still growing.”