There had to be times during his first season as Monaca High School's basketball coach that Tom Karczewski was wondering, "Why am I doing this?"

The Indians finished 0-22 in 2003-04 and had the mercy rule applied -- Monaca was trailing by 35 points in the second half -- in 14 games.

Karczewski, who had taken over that season for longtime Monaca coach Dave Nichol, knew the Indians were going to take their lumps. That didn't make what he and his players went through any easier.

"But even though we were 0-17, we played the next game as if it was for the section title," Karczewski said. "You know what? We didn't have one guy quit or drop off the team that year."

Karczewski, who grew up in Monaca and then attended Ligonier Valley High School as a junior and senior when his father took a job there, knew the program would right itself with a little hard work. After all, Monaca had always been a good sports town with tough athletes.

In an effort to get the basketball players on the court more in the offseason, he came up with a good visual for incentive.

He made copies of the 0-22 schedule and scores and had them laminated. Karczewski passed them out to the returning players.

"Kids have so many more things to do these days with computer games and all," he said. "I told them to put those schedules on their Game Boys or whatever and every time they sat down to play one of those to ask themselves, 'Am I getting better?' "

Monaca improved for the 2004-05 season, finishing 5-18. Last season, the Indians were 13-11 and qualified for the WPIAL Class A playoffs. This season, they are 15-8, have again qualified for the playoffs and four of those losses were by a total of 12 points.

The Indians won four in a row before losing to Western Beaver, 43-41, the final game of the regular season. They have managed that with two starters -- seniors Josh Nadzam and Brett Mazine -- out with injuries.

Nadzam, who played football and ran cross country in the fall, has been out with a broken bone in his foot. Mazine has a knee injury. Both were starters last year and there is a possibility both will be back for the playoffs.

"Being out has been killing Josh," Karczewski said. "He'd go through football practice and then go run 6 miles. He's been out on the court, shooting around and I've had to chase him off."

Because of the injuries, Monaca has been starting sophomores Skyler Schultz, who is 5 feet 8, and Chad Tokarski, 6-2; juniors Josh Himes, 6-1, and Victor Wright, 6-0; and having seniors Chris Martin, 6-3, and Brad Scassa, 6-2, split time.

"The thing is that we've got good numbers on all of our [age group] teams, like 14 and 15 at every level," Karczewski said. "We've got a lot of guys playing during the season, and if they aren't playing football or baseball we have them lifting weights and running, plus we got into a summer league."

Monaca athletes don't have to look any further than Karczewski for a role model on hard work.

He attended Geneva College and played football. His senior year, he got involved coaching the eighth grade boys' basketball team at Monaca. For a time, his days went something like this:

Attend classes in the morning and early afternoon, head to football practice later in the afternoon, jump in the car and drive to Monaca for basketball practice from 7-9 p.m., crack the books, collapse into bed.

"That year, we went 11-2 [in football] so we were going into December," Karczewski said. "I'd stop at the McDonald's in Beaver Falls and grab something to eat on the way to basketball practice. The thing was, we had just nine guys, so I'd end up having to play with the kids in practice."

A government and economics teacher at Moon Area High School, Karczewski has been involved with Monaca basketball for eight years. Before taking over as head coach, he was one of Nichol's assistants.

He is quick to point out that while Monaca has lost a number of close games this season, the Indians have also won a lot of thrillers. Nine of Monaca's wins have been by nine points or less.

"If we go into the fourth quarter tied or down by just a couple of points we feel pretty good about our chances," Karczewski said. "Our guys have learned how to win."