The Butler County Sports Hall of Fame will be honoring seven individuals at their 59th banquet on Saturday, April 25th at Butler County Community College’s Founder’s Hall. The dinner begins at 6:30pm. Among the honorees:
–1994 graduate from Knoch high school, Kelly Coffield, who was a four-year letter winner in volleyball and three-year letter winner in track and field. She was a team MVP in both sports for the Knights. Coffield went on to be a four-year starter and two-year captain in volleyball at Pitt. She was a four-time Big East Academic All-Star for the Panthers and became the first female athlete to be named Pitt Senior of the Year in 1999.
–2003 Mars graduate, Brad Mueller, who excelled in football and track for the Planets. At the time of his graduation, he held school records of more than 2,100 yards rushing in a season, 3,460 in his career, 25 touchdowns in a season and 403-yard and seven touchdowns in a game. Mueller won multiple WPIAL championships as a sprinter in track and won a state title in the 100 meters. He went on to play defensive back at Boston College and won a Division II national title in the indoor 60 meters for Slippery Rock University.
–A Mother-Daughter combination will be honored with Melinda and Jence Rhoads being inducted on the same night. Jence is a 2007 Slippery Rock high school graduate, who became the all-time leading scorer in Butler County girls basketball, totaling nearly 2,200 points. She also scored 100 goals in soccer and was named all-state in both sports. Jence went on to have a stellar basketball career at Vanderbilt.
–Her mother, Melinda, was the first four-year starter in Slippery Rock University women’s basketball history. She became a member of the United States handball team and competed in two world championships. Melinda was named MVP of the U.S. team at three different national championship events and was player of the year in 1980. She would go on to become a coach and was an Olympic torch bearer in 1996.
–1972 Butler high graduate, Jeff Schnur, set the Golden Tornado record in the mile run. He would go on to compete in track and cross country at Slippery Rock University. Schnur founded the Butler County Youth Soccer Association and was Butler high school’s first boys soccer coach, winning six section titles in 10 years.
–1980 graduate, Mike Seybert, who only competed in track and field his senior year, but it proved enough to earn a scholarship to Duquesne University, where he became a three-year captain and three-time all-conference cross country runner. Seybert is now in his 42nd year as a track and field coach at Butler. His teams have produced 23 WPIAL titles, nine state champions and 80 WPIAL Individual titles.
–1972 Butler high graduate, William “Bee” Thoma, who made his mark in gymnastics. He was a WPIAL champion in floor exercise and helped the Golden Tornado team to a state team title. Thomas went on to compete in gymnastics at Georgia Southern and was a team captain there. He went on to open the New Hope Gymnastics Club in California in 1984, and still runs the organization 42 years later. Thoma works with over 1,000 gymnasts a year, many at the national elite level.
The honorees will bring the total of 439 individual members of the Hall, which began in 1966 with the induction of Major League Baseball umpire Eddie Vargo.