By Lynn Saternow

Herald Sports Editor

ROB SPON HAS come a long way since his volunteer basketball coaching days at Our Lady of Fatima School in Farrell. In fact he’s now going a long way — to New England.

On Monday, the much-traveled hoop mentor takes over as head coach of the Manchester (N.H.) Millrats, about 40 minutes from Boston.

“I’m excited about it,” said Spon in a phone conversation Friday morning.

Spon has been involved in coaching for 24 years, working in high school programs locally at various times in Sharon, Greenville, West Middlesex, Hickory and more. He worked with professional teams in North Dakota, Canada, Pittsburgh and Indiana.

Most recently he was head coach of the Gary (Ind.) Steelheads which posted an 18-4 record.

“That was nice, but Gary was a spring league, February to June,” said Spon. “This job is all-year round. I want to be there and be part of the community to be successful. I’ll do some sales, besides coaching, and there are a lot of incentives.

“We have a great general manager and the owner is a billionaire. It’s hard to find owners like him, he wants to win.”

The team plays in the Premier Basketball League, which has 18 teams. The team is in its second season.

He already has recruited former St. John’s University star Eric Barkley, who is coming back to the country to play after a stint in a pro league in Poland.

He is now considering an assistant coach and one of the candidates is a familiar name to all of us in Mercer County — former Farrell High great Gravelle Craig. Craig is associate head coach at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida.

Spon, who also does part-time scouting for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is gearing up for an “exposure camp” in late September. He’ll be evaluating several players.

The league starts in December and the Philippine National team will be coming in for a warm-up game. Last year, the Millrats went to China and played a team from Singapore.