Bair's rushing record is close runner-up
Success touched the Butler County sports scene in many ways in 2007.
The sports staff of the Butler Eagle selected its top 15 athletic happenings of the year and baseball, football, basketball, soccer, swimming, kickboxing, boxing, golf, hockey and auto racing are all included.
Seneca Valley High School's state baseball title was voted the county's No. 1 sports story of the year, edging Mars running back Billy Bair's record-breaking season.
Here is a rundown of the other top sports memories as we say goodbye to 2007:
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No. 2: Bill Bair sets WPIALrushing record. The Mars running back ran for 2,112 yards and scored 34 touchdowns in the regular season, the former mark breaking the WPIAL record. He rushed for 4,356 yards and scored 64 TDs in his final two years of high school football.•
No. 3: Slippery Rock Sliders one and done. The Frontier League ventured into Butler County as the expansion Sliders called Slippery Rock University's Critchfield Park home. Student interns were hired to help run the team and a contest provided the franchise's nickname. But the Sliders finished with a league-worst 29-66 record, was last in the league in attendance and became the Midwest Sliders after a sale to a local buyer could not be worked out. The team will play all 96 of its games on the road in 2008.•
No. 4: Jence Rhoads breaks 2,000-point barrier. The Slippery Rock High School star ended her high school basketball career with a Butler County record 2,168 points. She averaged 21.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 5.6 steals per game for the Rockets and is starting as a freshman at Vanderbilt University.•
No. 5: Mars boys soccer reaches state title game. The Planets (21-4-1) began an improbable run to the state finals after dropping a 1-0 decision to Center in the WPIALsemifinals. Then they won a 1-0 game over South Park in overtime to qualify for the state tournament and reeled off three straight PIAAplayoff wins before bowing to Palmyra 2-0 in the championship game at Hershey.•
No. 6: Pump McLaughlin statue dedicated at Butler County Family YMCA. Nearly 250 people turned out on May 6 as a statue depicting legendaryaquatics director John "Pump"McLaughlin with young swimmers Eric Namesnik and Alice Ann McLaughlin was dedicated. McLaughlin died at 64 in 2004 after 45 years as the Y's aquatics director. Namesnik, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, died in 2006 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Alice Ann McLaughlin is a niece of Pump's and went on to coach swimming as well.•
No. 7: Jimmy Stewart inducted into Martial Arts Hall of Fame. The professional kickboxer from Butler, 19-0 with 11 knockouts in his career and holder of three world titles, was inducted Aug. 4 at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. Now 45, Stewart hasn't officially retired from the ring and trains young fighters in Butler.•
No. 8: Seneca Valley swim coach suspended for hazing incident. Because of a hazing controversy involving members of his team, Tom Donati was suspended as Raiders swim coach two weeks before the WPIALChampionships. Assistant coach Tom Fletcher took over the team in his absence and guided it to postseason success. Donati was later reinstated as coach and is running the program this season.•
No. 9: Brian Minto fighting for WBAFedercentro title. The Butler heavyweight (28-2, 19 KOs) is taking on Byron Polley (27-7) for a World Boxing Association regional belt this week. A victory would propel him into the WBA's top 15 and make him eligible for a world title fight. Minto dropped a 10-round decision to European Luan Krasniqi in Germany earlier this year.•
No. 10: Rob McClellan breaks Butler Country Club course record. McClellan, 27, carded a 9-under 62 on Aug. 28, breaking the previous course record of 63 set by the late Jim Simons in 1975. Simons went on to become a member of the PGATour and had a memorial shelter dedicated in his name days after McClellan broke the record.•
No. 11: Seneca Valley girls soccer team wins WPIALtitle. The Raiders (17-3-1) had never advanced beyond the first round of the WPIALplayoffs in coach Dave Sylvester's previous seven years at the helm and were only a No. 9 seed this year. But goals by sophomore Amanda Cerminara and Brianna Meurer lifted the team past Upper St. Clair, 2-0, in the title game.•
No. 12: Freeport hockey team captures Penguins Cup. The Yellowjackets had never won the Cup and faced defending Class A state champion Quaker Valley, which was riding a 35-game unbeaten streak, for the title. Freeport claimed a 4-1 victory as goaltender Tim Zahumensky stopped 40 of 41 shots. Leading scorer Beau Zack had a goal and an assist while Zach King and Jeremy Gent scored only their second and fourth goals of the season, respectively.•
No. 13: Alex Ferree has career year at Lernerville. The driver of the No. 4 Late Model dominated that division on Friday nights at Lernerville Speedway. The Saxonburg resident won nine of 17 features at the Sarver track, tacking on eight heat race triumphs. He never finished lower than fifth in a regular-season feature race at Lernerville and clinched the track points championship with a month remaining.•
No. 14: Former Seneca Valley student Mike Weber reaches NHL. Weber left Seneca Valley after his freshman year to join the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League and finished his schooling in Canada. He was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the 2006 NHLDraft, played another year in the OHL and began this season with the American Hockey League's Rochester club. The Sabres called up the 6-foot-2 defenseman Oct. 26.•
No. 15 — Butler County players help Pittsburgh Passion win women's football championship. The Passion finished 12-0 and as champions of the National Women's Football Association. Quarterback and Slippery Rock University graduate Lisa Horton was named MVPof the title game. SRU graduate Teresa Conn owns the team and Moniteau graduate Jayne Beatty served as general manager. Other county players with the team were defensive lineman Melissa Yeck of Cranberry Township, tailback Shelly Zoelle of Renfrew and fullback Lyndsi Hughes of Grove City.
