SLIPPERY ROCK — Emily Skoczlas sits in the first chair on the bench, elbows digging into her thighs.

"Get back. Get back," she shouts, but her words are quickly absorbed by the din in the Slippery Rock High gym. "Take a charge."

She has bellowed things like that before as a player for the Rockets girls basketball team. But now she does it in a totally different role: as a coach.

It wasn't long ago when Skoczlas was on the court as a player alongside a young Jence Rhoads.

Two years later, Skoczlas is coaching Rhoads as an assistant to first-year Slippery Rock coach Adrienne Orris.

She also is the junior varsity coach.

"It's nice — and a little weird," Skoczlas said. "I have been playing with Jence for most of my basketball career. About the third or fourth practice, I knew I can't yell at her or tell her to do something. I know she knows more of the game that I do."

But that might change soon. Skoczlas is getting a crash course on the ins and out of coaching basketball at a very young age.

Just 20 years old and a full-time student at SlipperyRock University, Skoczlas intended to be just a volunteer assistant for the Rockets.

Then fate intervened.

She showed up for the first day of practice and found out Orris needed an assistant — and quickly.

Skoczlas jumped at the chance.

"I'm sort of glad I knew all of the girls," Skoczlas said. "It helped the whole experience."

Skoczlas is a sports management major at SRU. Coaching basketball is something she wants to do a lot of in the future.

So, she has been a sponge, soaking up as much as she can from her former coach, John Tabisz, Orris and just about anyone else who will lend her a few minutes of insight.

"I talk to Tabs a lot," Skoczlas said. "I love just going to all kinds of other basketball games to watch and learn as much as I can, watch what they do and everything."

Nothing, though, could prepare her for her first game on the seat at the front of the bench.

"It was a little nerve-racking," Skoczlas said of her first JV game. "It's a totally different perspective on the game. You can never get that experience until you are actually put in a position to be in that seat."

Since then, Skoczlas has adapted well to that chair.

"I have invested a lot," she said. "I have learned so much from coach Orris as far as what to do and what to say. I've just gotten comfortable being a leader of a team here, telling them what to do, yelling at them — I'm still working on that."

One player who loves having Skoczlas around is Rhoads.

"It's a lot of fun," Rhoads said. "She's good with the younger kids and she's becoming a better coach as the season has gone along."

Skoczlas said she realizes she still has a long way to go, especially when it comes to asserting herself with her team.

"I can lay the smack down on them every now and then," she said, laughing.

But Rhoads sees her softer side.

"She's just too nice," Rhoads said. "I wouldn't be offended if she did yell at me."