Coach Dick Swaney

"We have to be very creative sometimes," notes Dick Swaney, basketball coach at Evangel Heights Christian Academy in Sarver. This is the third senior class at the school; even though the basketball program is in its third year, it's still in its infancy. But Swaney is no stranger to coaching.

A retired metallurgical engineer, over the past 40 years he has coached basketball, football and ice hockey, and now brings a wealth of experience to the school and its hoops program. Dick says, "The most exciting thing to me at this level is watching players who have very little or no talent develop into where they can actually play the game and understand the game. One of the things I enjoy about coaching is I get to teach the game."

He must do a good job. Two of last year's four senior players both returned to coach the Evangel Heights middle school teams this year. This year's varsity team has four seniors also, including the school's first player over 6'4'. "That's a luxury I'm not used too," Swaney mentions.

The Eagles are a diverse group according to the coach and includes players from home schools as well as a player who is part-time at the school and learning to be a welder in a trade school. Swaney calls them "adjunct" students. "We are very home school friendly," Dick says. "Some home schoolers need certain courses that they can't get at home school—they need have to be from an organization like ours, so they might be here for one class. That makes them eligible for athletics."

The Eagles don’t play in the WPIAL, but with other schools that are just getting started. This is the first year of a new Christian school league that for Evangel Heights includes an 18-game schedule playing Aquinas, Westmoreland Christian Academy and a home school group from the Slippery Rock area.

"It's a lot of fun, a lot competitiveness," says the Evangel Heights coach. "We hope we have the ingredients for a winning season this year." Dick Swaney goes into more detail about the team and the Eagle basketball program in this exclusive online video.