Opportunity to play: Fans travel to support Butler football
ERIE — Butler fans traveled north Friday night to support their football team, which only a day earlier was waiting for a decision that would determine whether or not they could compete in the District 10 Class 6A title game.
On Thursday, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough denied the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s appeal of last week’s Butler County Common Pleas Court decision to allow Butler’s participation in playoffs this season and potentially next.
If McCullough had ruled the other way, the campaign would have stopped short for a squad that earned the chance to play.
And while Butler’s Golden Tornado wasn’t able to overcome McDowell High School on Friday at Veterans Stadium in Erie, many Butler fans were proud of what the team came through to get there.
“365 days of the year, they’re practicing football,” said Center Township's Lance Rihn, who attended the court proceedings along with his wife, Kimberly. “They should have the opportunity to play at the end of the day. They’ve literally won the position to play in the playoffs.”
Rihn stressed that the work the team has put in throughout the entire calendar should mean something.
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