John Heller, Post-Gazette Junior point guard Mike Carr directs the Steel Valley offense. Click photo for larger image.

Steel Valley opened the boys' high school basketball season facing some unfamiliar foes, but the Ironmen couldn't argue with the early results.

They started play last Friday and Saturday in the Meadville Tipoff Tournament, where they faced a couple of non-WPIAL teams in their first two games of the season.

That's not an easy way for a young and inexperienced team to get its season under way. It might have been easier had the Ironmen faced squads that had familiar personnel or offensive or defensive tendencies.

Not knowing much about their opponents wasn't much of a distraction for the Ironmen, who won the tournament with a win against host Meadville in the first round and took the tournament championship with a win against George Jr. Republic.

Ironmen coach Shawn McCallister is hoping those two wins will provide the springboard into a strong season of section play.

Steel Valley got an early idea of what to expect out of Section 4-AAAA when it opened the section season at home against AAA favorite Chartiers Valley Monday night. The Colts handled the Ironmen, 61-48, behind a 34-point effort from senior guard Mike Sherry.

"The [Meadville] tournament was a good experience for us," said McCallister, beginning his third season as the team's head coach. "We're really very happy with the way the kids got things started. We're young and inexperienced. We still have a long way to go. But that was a good start for us."

Things almost did not turn out that way. Steel Valley beat Meadville, 62-52, to open the season Friday night, but fell behind George Jr. Republic by 16 points in the third quarter of Saturday's tournament championship game. At that point, the Ironmen showed their will.

"We're real pleased with the way the team responded once we fell behind like that," McCallister said. "When you're down like that, you find out a little bit about your team. We told the kids [a comeback] had to start on the defensive end. If they wanted to get back into the game, they had to step it up on defense. That's what they did."

McCallister said the team's success in the tournament in general and in the championship game in particular was due to a total team effort. He said he could not really pinpoint one player or one incident that sparked the team, but felt it was due to contributions from throughout the lineup.

Steel Valley was led throughout the tournament by four key players, three of them juniors. Mike Carr, a 5-foot-11 point guard, ran the offense effectively with help from 6-2 swing man Ryan Sabo. Nick Siniawski, a burly 5-11 forward, teamed with 6-2 senior forward Lee Crumity to do the work inside as the Ironmen battled back from the considerable deficit.

"For our kids to get two wins like that really should build our confidence," McCallister said. "The kids played real well as a team. It was a situation where we did not have any one person do anything that was really spectacular or anything like that. They all performed well."

Steel Valley will need similar types of performances if it is to reach its goal of winning the Section 4-AAA title. That will not be an easy goal to reach with competition such as Chartiers Valley, one of the top teams in the WPIAL, and Elizabeth Forward, the defending champion, boasting 6-9 Steve Swiech under the hoop. McCallister expects several other teams to be strong as well.

"We're telling the kids it's going to be a battle every night," he said. "Char Valley is the favorite for AAA, you know Elizabeth Forward has Swiech and teams like Thomas Jefferson, Keystone Oaks and South Park are all good.

"West Mifflin is always good, too, and this year we have Trinity coming down from Quad A. We're going to have to be ready. You never get a night off in this section."

McCallister plans for his team to handle the nightly schedule by varying its style of play as needed. Steel Valley plans to run when it can but also operate a solid half-court offense. A former Waynesburg College point guard, McCallister said on the defensive end, his team will give opponents a variety of looks.

"We've got to play as a team on offense and defense," he said. "I don't think we can be successful if we just do one thing. We have to play good defense every time out.

"We're not a big team -- our tallest players are 6-2. We can't be standing around on defense. We've got to keep moving and keep playing hard.

"We got off to a good start, but we still have a long way to go to be where we want to be."