His determination is derived from one, precise point.

"All the girls who I have ever coached is what drives me the most," Jimmy Petruska said. "I have to thank all of them. They know who they all are and they know that they are a big reason why I am where I am today."

Where Petruska is today is part of Saint Vincent College history.

At 25, Petruska recently became the first full-time assistant coach in the history of the women's basketball program at Saint Vincent. He was formerly a graduate assistant for Bearcats coach Kristen Zawacki, but when the athletic department decided to add a full-time position, Petruska jumped at the offer.

His duties will span everything from on-floor coaching to day-to-day operations to film work and recruiting.

And if the Petruska surname sounds familiar in girls' basketball circles, it should. His mother, Dana Petruska, coached at Mars Area High School for 19 years before recently accepting the head-coaching position at her alma mater, Deer Lakes.

The younger Petruska, who graduated from Mars in 2000 and Saint Vincent in 2004, knows how tremendously influential his mother has been. He started as an assistant on her Mars staff and also spent time as a local AAU coach before landing the graduate assistantship at Saint Vincent and, now, the full-time gig.

"From a young age, my mom got me interested in the game of basketball," said Jimmy, who played at Mars and is currently enrolled in a master's program at Saint Vincent. "She probably taught me 95 percent of what I know about the game and about how to coach the game of basketball.

"What I learned from my mom more than anything was how to deal with players as people and not just who they are on the basketball floor. Some coaches forget about their players as people and see them as just players, and one of my mom's biggest things is that she understands how to treat her players."

That is just one of the many lessons handed down from his mother that Jimmy Petruska will take with him as he ventures into this new position, the duties of which began on July 1.

Sure, everyone would love to begin their coaching career at a women's collegiate basketball powerhouse such as Tennessee, Connecticut, Penn State or Stanford. But Petruska knows there is a big plus to being on the staff at this tiny Division III school in Latrobe.

"People who have never coached at a small school don't understand how many responsibilities come along with it," Petruska said. "If you take [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, for example, she might have four or five assistants, then a director of operations and then a person who does all the film work.

"But a place like St. Vincent [which went 10-13 last winter], you don't have that and I think that it makes you learn how to run a program and it forces you to become a very good coach in terms of all the administration stuff."

So even though he has just entered a new chapter, where does Petruska go from here?

"My mom has taught me that there is a fine line between being satisfied and being content," he said. "I am very much satisfied with where I am right now, but you can never be content.

"I want to continue to climb and I want to help St. Vincent College have their women's basketball program continue to climb."