From beginning to present
This is the eighth in a series of articles profiling the 2022 Butler County Sports Hall of Fame inductees.
SAXONBURG — Steve Hall got in on the ground floor of Knoch baseball — and has helped the program elevate ever since.
The 1991 Knoch graduate played on the Knights’ first-ever baseball team in 1990, served as an assistant coach on the program’s first state championship team of 2015, and won a number of titles himself playing ball for Saxonburg in the Eagle County League.
Those achievements and others have landed him in the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame. Hall and 12 other individuals will be inducted during the organization’s annual banquet at 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Lyndora American Legion hall.
“I’m definitely honored by this ... not something I was expecting,” Hall said.
A baseball player since the age of 8, Hall started as a middle infielder on the Knights’ first baseball team. Despite having no seniors on the squad, Knoch finished around .500 in its first season. The Knights finished 9-7 during Hall’s senior year, when he hit .500 with 25 hits in 50 at bats, including six doubles, three triples, 21 RBI and 21 runs scored. He had five hits in five at-bats with eight RBI in a game.
Hall was Knoch baseball team MVP in 1990 and 1991.
Also a football and basketball player at Knoch, Hall was a captain his senior year in football, playing wide receiver and defensive back and made all-conference on defense his senior season. He was a guard on the basketball team.
He went on to play baseball at Grove City College.
“We were just an average team in the PAC (Presidents’ Athletic Conference), but I had a lot of fun playing there,” Hall said. “Baseball has always been my sport.”
A three-year letterman at Grove City, Hall went on to play for Saxonburg of the Eagle County League from 1995 through 2012. He played for teams that won league championships in 1998 and from 2004-07. He ended his playing career at age 40, having already been deep into his career as an assistant baseball coach at Knoch.
“We had a solid core of players at Saxonburg and (manager) Dan Cunningham knew how to put a team together,” Hall said. “The league started playing four nightrs a week and that was a little much for me.
“It was a competitive league and I just felt like it was time for me to get out.”
He did play in a Sunday adult baseball league in the Pittsburgh area for a while.
Hall has served as an assistant baseball coach at Knoch under five head coaches. He got started under then-head coach Curt Schnur in 2002. Schnur was one of his long-time teammates with Saxonburg.
“Curt and I are great friends and he asked me to be an assistant coach,” Hall said. “I’ve really enjoyed that role. I only applied for the head coaching job once. Sean O’Donnell and I both applied and agreed that if one of us got the job, the other would be an assistant.”
Hall was an assistant under George Bradley when Knoch won the 2015 state title. Prior to that season, Knoch baseball had one playoff win in 25 years.
“What a group of kids that was,” Hall said. “A bunch of hard-nosed players who loved baseball and knew how to play the game. Some of them went on to college ball. It was a privilege working with those guys.”
Still an assistant baseball coach at Knoch, Hall has been a PIAA football official since 1997. He’s worked five WPIAL championship games and one state title contest.
Tickets for the banquet are $30 in advance and will soon be available at Parker Appliance in Chicora, Saxonburg Drug, the Butler Radio Network, Maddalon Jewelers in Zelienople and at www.bcshof.com. Tickets will be $35 at the door.
