Clutch final season made Snodgrass Butler hoop legend
This is the first in a series of articles on the 2022 inductees into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame
BUTLER TWP — He only had a handful of points at halftime.
By the end of Butler’s 2012 WPIAL boys basketball playoff game against North Allegheny at Ambridge, Nate Snodgrass forever cemented his name in Golden Tornado basketball lore.
The senior point guard scored more than 30 points that night, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime, then hit the game-deciding jumper in the extra session after Butler held the ball for nearly four minutes.
“I remember that game well,” Snodgrass said. “That was probably the highlight of my high school career.”
Snodgrass scored 1,132 points as a four-year starter during his varsity career. He was fourth on the Tornado’s all-time scoring list at the time of his graduation.
Snodgrass, who also enjoyed a stellar college basketball career at Pitt-Johnstown, will be inducted into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame during a 6 p.m. ceremony Dec. 16 in the high school cafeteria. The inductees will also be recognized at halftime of the Franklin Regional-Butler boys basketball game.
“That run we had in the playoffs that year (2012) was typical of who Nate was as a player,” Butler boys basketball coach Matt Clement said. “We don’t even get to that game at Ambridge if we don’t beat No. 2 seed Chartiers Valley earlier in the playoffs and we were the 15-seed.
“Nate dished off to Luke Hartung for the winning shot against Chartiers Valley. The rest of his (high school) career was on the line and he trusted a teammate. He was a team player all the way. Then he set up Cody West for five treys in the first half against NA. He was such as great passer ... nothing flashy, he just knew what to do with the ball.”
Snodgrass admitted that Clement “constantly told me to shoot the ball more. My senior year, I knew I had to do it for us to be successful.”
Snodgrass was a four-year starter at point guard for Butler. He started his freshman season under Joe Lewandowski, then his last three years under Clement. He was voted team Co-MVP his sophomore season.
He made numerous all-tournament teams throughout his high school career before capping everything with a stellar senior campaign. Snodgrass scored 42 points and had 10 assists against North Allegheny late in the regular season. He made first team All-WPIAL, third team all-state, was team MVP and was valedictorian of his graduating class.
His free throw shooting accuracy his final year was 91%, believed to be the highest in program history.
“And he almost didn’t play that senior season,” Clement said. “Nate fell and fractured his wrist during our final practice. They found a brace he could play with and he put together an incredible year.
“Nate, Bobby Swartwout, that whole group ... They brought Butler basketball back. They were the start to a really good run.”
After a year at Northern Kentucky, Snodgrass played at Pitt-Johnstown and was team captain his final two seasons there. He led the PSAC in 3-point shooting percentage and averaged 14.2 points per game.
“Our team at UPJ was a bunch of local kids. We didn’t have Division I transfers like a lot of other schools in the PSAC did,” Snodgrass recalled. “Yet we still competed, still made the conference playoffs. That’s what I remember most about that.”
Snodgrass is married and lives in Cranberry Township. Her works as an accountant with Dick’s Sporting Goods and plays a lot of pickle ball at Graham Park.
He had been playing basketball in the company’s intramural league “before COVID hit and we did a lot of work remotely, putting an end to that.”
But memories of his basketball career will last a long time.
“Nate was a pure point guard, a kid who was into basketball 12 months a year,” Clement said. “He was such an unselfish, team-oriented player. He was truly a pleasure to coach.”
