Butler football OK to play
Butler’s varsity football team has been granted its request for a permanent injunction through the Butler County Court of Common Pleas and now is permitted to participate in the upcoming District 10 playoffs.
“The conduct of the (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) amounts to arbitrary and capricious discrimination against the Butler Area School District,” the court ruling handed down by Senior Judge Robert Yeatts Friday afternoon said.
The ruling enables Butler to be eligible for the 2023 playoffs as well, should it qualify.
“The PIAA went against its own bylaws and constitution, policies and procedures,” said attorney Tom Breth, who filed the request for an injunction on behalf of the Butler Area School District. “They decided to impose punishment that was unjust to our student-athletes. That’s what this was about.
“We’re all Butler. We were fighting for Butler.”
Because Yeatts rules in favor of the school district, Butler will appear in the playoffs. Butler qualified by defeating Erie High School on Sept. 23. If the judge had instead sided with the PIAA, Erie would have advanced to the playoffs.
Butler’s football team opted out of the WPIAL following the 2019 season, a year in which it finished with 23 players on its roster. Butler then became an associate football member of District 10 and participated in that district’s playoffs last season. Districts 10 and 7 agreed to let Butler play in District 10 in 2020 and 2021, and the PIAA agreed to let Butler play in the playoffs, according to the school district.
Last winter, The WPIAL declared Butler ineligible to qualify for postseason play in District 10. After its appeal to the PIAA to change that ruling was denied, Butler opted to appeal the ruling through the court system.
The official hearing on the matter took place Thursday. It lasted well into the afternoon. Yeatts decided to wait until Friday before rendering a decision.
“The judge got it 100% correct,” said attorney Tom King, part of Butler’s legal team.
“He patiently listened to and considered all testimony and put a lot of thought into this case,” Breth said of Yeatts. “This is a case very unique to Butler. I don’t think anything else (in terms of potential district movement by other schools) will come of it.”
The Golden Tornado concluded its regular season Friday night at Greater Latrobe and will face defending District 10 champion McDowell for the district’s 6A championship in one or two weeks. McDowell defeated Butler, 40-21, in last year’s District 10 title game.
“That was a big part of this,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said of that 2021 playoff game. “Our kids were permitted to play last year, then (the PIAA) tried taking it away from us this year.
“This is an opportunity our kids earned, so they deserve to play in the playoffs.”
Butler football coach Eric Christy teaches government and history at Butler Area High School. Approximately a dozen Golden Tornado football players were in the courtroom for Thursday’s hearing.
“It was good for the kids to be there, watch it and experience it, especially since they had a stake in what was going on,” Christy said. “It was a learning tool for them. I doubt they were ever in a courtroom before.
“Sometimes it takes years for the court system to right a wrong. This action was taken swiftly. I’m grateful for the support the football team received from the school district and the community. Everybody came together on this one.
“It’s nice to see how a football team can rally a community together. I’m excited for our kids and our school,” Christy added.
