Mark Gaither knows what the Bethel Park High School boys' basketball team has in terms of personnel next season.

He also knows most people will choose to look at what they lost. Coming off a WPIAL Class AAAA championship and 25-4 record, the Black Hawks lost nine seniors.

The program also lost its head coach, Mike Mastroianni, who jumped to Quaker Valley.

That is where Gaither, 32, enters the picture. After serving as head coach at Ringgold High School the past three seasons, this 1993 Mt. Lebanon graduate was recently named head coach of the Bethel Park boys' program.

He knows full well what he's getting into.

"They definitely lost a lot off a very, very good team," Gaither admitted, before flipping that fact into a positive. "There were nine seniors who graduated and that is a lot of talent, but they have kids back who worked hard against those kids every day in practice and were in an environment of winning, a championship environment.

"Yeah, some people can look at it as Bethel Park lost a lot of very good players, but I look at it as we have kids back who know what it takes to become a champion."

They are kids who were under the tutelage of Mastroianni, considered by just about everyone to be one of the finest coaches in the WPIAL in recent history. Although some coaches would declare a complete overhaul no matter what shape the program was in, Gaither acknowledges those heights reached by Mastroianni, and also a commitment to keeping the program at that lofty level.

"There is no doubt that [Mastroianni] is an excellent coach," Gaither said. "We are going to try to keep the same philosophies and build off of what Mike did at Bethel Park. We will take some of our own identity and go through some transition, but we also will try to keep the program to the level of where Mike brought it to and feed off of what he did."

Gaither, who played at Asbury College in Kentucky, knew a good situation when he saw it -- and the Bethel Park job, in his mind, seemed like a perfect fit an instant after he was brought in for his initial interview.

"Actually, from the moment that I went in and spoke with the people at Bethel Park, I felt a connection," Gaither said.

"I knew that the people that I was talking to were genuine and that they were good people who wanted to do things the right way.

"They want to be successful, but they understood that they weren't dealing with just basketball players and how kids are on the floor, but they were dealing with young men. That is exactly how I approach coaching and, because Bethel Park has the same ideals that I do, I think it will be a great fit."