Nearly a quarter-century ago, Adrian Batts played in his first WPIAL basketball playoff game, and it was against Jeannette.

Now, Batts, 41, will be a head coach of a high school basketball team for the first time. And it will be for Jeannette.

Batts, a 1986 Steel Valley graduate who was an assistant at Jeannette the past three seasons, was hired as the Jayhawks' head coach last week. He replaces Jim Nesser, who resigned to become the coach at Hempfield.

"I'm very ecstatic. This is the place I really wanted to be," said Batts, a former point guard who played at Edinboro University. "When I found out that coach Nesser was leaving, I was hoping that the school board would make a decision and keep me, and that's what they did. I'm very happy to be where I'm at."

Batts, whose day job is with Coca-Cola in Greensburg, has made Jeannette his home. He joined the Jayhawks' staff when Nesser took the team over in 2006 and was with the team when it won the WPIAL and PIAA Class AA titles in 2008.

Batts also has served as assistant coach at Franklin Regional and West Mifflin high schools and in college at Pitt-Johnstown.

"Without a doubt, he's a great choice," Jeanette athletic director Bob Murphy said. "He's been an assistant and he was there for our run at the state championship and winning it, so I'm sure he will do a great job."

It's clear in talking to Batts that his time at Jeannette has been perhaps his most exciting coaching stop over the years. Jeannette played in the WPIAL title game each of the past three seasons and went 72-14 in that time span.

"What I've seen the past three years with the following from the community and the way the kids approach the game, it's just unbelievable how the community gets behind the athletic and sports programs at Jeannette," Batts said. "I'm so happy I'm a part of it, and I'm going to do my best to keep the tradition going. When you put on that Jeannette jersey, you know what it means. I'm going to preach that from varsity on down to the sixth-graders."

Of course, much of the winning over the past three seasons can be at least partially attributed to Terrelle Pryor and Jordan Hall, both of whom are playing football at Ohio State -- and those were the two most high-profile of the many talented players who have graduated from Jeannette the last two years.

Only one starter, junior guard Darius Brown, returns from last season, and there were only five underclassmen so much as listed on the varsity roster last season. Among players who did not graduate this spring, only Brown, senior guard Toddy Harris and senior forward Brian Weightman scored double figures in a game at least once -- and it was only a handful of times it happened combined.

"We certainly have to reload, so to speak, but we've always had some great kids," Murphy said. "Obviously ... we've had some very big losses.

"But we will be OK."

Brown and Weightman figure to perhaps be the focus of the 2009-10 team.

"We have some pretty good young guys coming back," Batts said. "We're not really going to change our style. We're still going to go at it defensively and really guard the ball. We'll be very up-tempo and push the ball, protect the ball and rebound and get out and run.

"That's what we've been doing at Jeannette the last three years, and we've been very successful. We're not going to change much."

Batts views the fact he was already on the staff as the former junior varsity head coach as a positive. The players on the team are familiar with him (and vice versa) -- most notably, the younger players who will be stepping into varsity roles after starring for Batts' JV squad this past season.

"When I got the position, they all called me and congratulated me," Batts said. "They wanted me to be there. I feel good about that. They know I'm as hard a worker in practice as I am in the game.

"They all know I'm a former player; they know I come in with the right mindset and prepared every day in practice and every game."