It’s never too late to try something new.

Butler graduates Nick Stazer and Ethan Trettel are testaments to that. And Slippery Rock University’s football program hopes to reap the benefits.

Stazer did not come out for the Butler High School football team until his senior season. He wound up starting for the Golden Tornado and tried walking on at the University of Pittsburgh. He had hopes of joining Butler graduate Jake Kradel along the Panthers’ offensive line.

When that didn’t work out, Stazer transferred to The Rock, continued to mature as a player and is now a starter for the perennial PSAC and NCAA Division II playoff contender.

Trettel planned on playing football in the Butler Area Midget Football League program as a youngster. But before entering fourth grade — and playing his first year of football — he required hernia surgery and missed that season. He never came back to the game.

Until seven years later.

Trettel decided to try football his junior year. While he played wide receiver and defensive back for the Tornado junior varsity, his varsity time was insignificant. Trettel said he entered a game on Friday nights “for only one package of plays,” usually toward the end of the half or the game.

He caught one pass for no yards as a varsity player his junior season.

It would have been easy to give it up after such a year.

But Trettel, who stands only 5-foot-8 and weighs 140 pounds, returned for his senior season. He became a productive starter at receiver and cornerback, catching 25 passes and scoring four touchdowns while averaging more than 20 yards per catch.

That was in only seven games. A fractured fibula forced him to miss the season’s final three games. He did catch six passes for 118 yards and a touchdown in the District 10 all-star game.

He earned himself football offers from Division III schools, but Trettel was going to only one place.

Slippery Rock.

He liked the engineering program at SRU and — even though there was no room on the Rock roster for him this season — opted to choose education over football and enroll at the university regardless.

This guy was a baseball player through most of his childhood. He started on Butler’s varsity baseball team for two years. It would have been three had COVID-19 not wiped out the 2020 high school spring sports season.

Trettel will have an opportunity to make the SRU football roster in 2023. Don’t bet against him.

He has a thirst for more football. A chance to play slot receiver in SRU’s program may seem more like a dream than reality right now. But Trettel’s willing to work at making it become more reality than dream.

One Butler late-bloomer pulled it off. Why can’t another?

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle