Rich Falter officially has been replaced as Highlands High School's boys' basketball coach.

Unofficially, he will still be apart of the team.

Shawn Bennis, who was an assistant on Falter's staff at Highlands from 1993 until 2006, was named at a school board meeting Monday night as Falter's replacement. Falter resigned early this month because of family responsibilities.

Ah, but Falter is likely to still be part of the Highlands program.

Athletic director Matt Bonislawski said he wouldn't be surprised if Falter signs on as one of Bennis' assistants.

"I know it's been discussed," Bonislawski said. "Rich'll be here."

Bennis, a middle school principal in the Highlands' district, has spent the past three seasons as Kiski Area's head coach. He had Kiski Area in the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs last season.

Following the season, Falter hinted that he was going to resign. He looks after his mother, who requires constant care, and the strain of doing that and trying to make all the practices and games was getting to be too much.

After Highlands, which has won 20 games for three consecutive seasons and played in the WPIAL Class AAA final this year, lost to Farrell in a PIAA playoff contest, Falter said he would like to be an assistant coach in the program. That way if he couldn't make a practice or a game it would not be a big deal.

Still, he probably would have remained as head coach for at least the coming season if his two assistants had not resigned.

"I thought one was going to stay, but they both had family commitments," Falter said. "But this has worked out well because I'm pretty sure I'll be back as one of Shawn's assistants. We know each other well, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Bonislawski said he first posted the basketball coaching job in the school district and that Bennis was the only one who applied. That allowed the school board to move quickly.

There were a couple of days, however, when Bonislawski wasn't sure Bennis would go after the job.

"I talked to him about it and he said he was interested, but the deadline was Friday and he didn't put in an application until Thursday," Bonislawski said. "It just made sense for him to get the job once he applied, but you never know about these things.

"I'm glad we got it done as soon as we did because you've got open gyms and summer leagues and the players now know who's going to coach them."

Bennis, a Highlands graduate, and Falter run just about the same system and type of drills, so players will know what to expect. And Highlands has two starters returning from last year's 20-8 team, so the cupboard is hardly empty.

Something else that won't change is the Golden Rams rugged schedule. Besides competing in Section 1-AAA against Hampton, Valley, Mars and Knoch, they will have games against Greensburg Salem, Beaver Falls, North Hills, Greensburg Central Catholic and North Hills.

"One thing Shawn asked me was whether we were still going to play the same schedule," Bonislawski said. "I told him we were and he just looked at me."

"We played that tough schedule this past season because we knew we were going to be good and wanted the competition," Falter said.