When Perry Harrop took over as the boys' varsity coach at Northgate in early November, he looked at his new team and saw a lot of his old team.

Northgate, coming off a 2-12 section record, may not have had quite the talent of the Quaker Valley team for which Harrop was an assistant last season, however.

The Quakers won 18 games reaching the WPIAL quarterfinals and PIAA playoffs. They are ranked No. 2 by the Post-Gazette in the Class AA preseason rankings.

Northgate returns only two players with significant varsity experience from a 7-15 team.

Quaker Valley defeated Northgate, 62-37, in the championship game of the Avonworth tournament on Saturday.

Nonetheless, Harrop cannot help but see the similarities from the team he coached under Quaker Valley's Mike Mastroianni to the new team he inherited just three weeks before the season.

"That team I had last year at Quaker Valley, they were kids who had big hearts and they gave 100 percent effort," said Harrop, a career assistant, taking his first head coaching job.

"Skill-level wise, we are not there yet. As far as being coachable and having good attitudes and just laying it all out there, they are there in that respect."

Attitude and effort aside, the challenges are many for Harrop. Since reaching the WPIAL semifinals in 2007, Northgate has gone 14-32 over the past two seasons plus. Seniors Josh Heaney and Mark Wilson are the only two starters with significant varsity experience.

On top of that, Harrop only took the job Nov. 9. The vacancy was left when former coach Kevin McKiernan took an assistant principal job at West Allegheny.

"Every time we are out there, it is not like we played 30 summer league and fall league games together," Harrop said.

"We just had the two scrimmages. You can only see so much in practice when you are going up against ninth and 10th graders. It is going to be like this for a few weeks ... I will be learning something new about my team every game. One thing I have learned is that they play hard every minute, whether we were up by 20 or down by 20."

Harrop has already seen both instances, too. His team was up by 20 and more in a 52-29 season-opening win against Avonworth in the Antelopes' own tipoff tournament.

Then there was the 62-37 loss to Quaker Valley in the championship game.

The Flames bounced back Monday with a 56-55 victory against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

The Flames (2-1) are going with a trio of forwards all named Josh. Seniors Josh Douglass, Josh Dunn and Josh Heaney rotate into starting roles with senior guard Chris Mangel and Mark Wilson at guard and 6-5 sophomore Jon Girvin at center. Heaney was named to the all-tournament team at the Avonworth tournament. He is a captain along with Wilson and Mangel.

"It is going to take a lot of hard work for us to compete," said Mangel, who also played center and linebacker on the football team.

"It is going to take everyone coming in everyday and putting in the extra time. Everyone has to play hard. We are more together this year. We were falling apart last year at the end of the year and now I see a lot of us coming together."

As an assistant at Quaker Valley and Bethel Park before that where he watched the Black Hawks win the 2007 WPIAL title, Harrop has not been a part of a team that has missed the postseason in six years. It will be an uphill climb to get the Flames into the playoffs mostly because of a section that features No. 1-ranked South Fayette, defending WPIAL champion North Catholic and a talented Bishop Canevin team.

Heading into section play Tuesday against Carlynton, Harrop knows that even if his team is ahead on the scoreboard, it will still be trying to play catch up of sorts.

"We are going to be behind the whole time," Harrop said, citing his late start.

"We need to give 100 percent effort because everyone is going to be ahead of us. We can't make up in a week or two what teams have done in six months. We have to do it with effort and playing together and being disciplined."

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