Butler County Community College DME

BUTLER TWP — Butler County Community College’s women’s basketball season got off to a rough start — and an early end.

Due to a lack of available players, BC3 decided to end its season earlier this month, canceling its final nine regular season games. The Pioneers were 1-8.

This marks the first time the program ever had to cut its season short. The Pioneers finished 19-6 last year under interim head coach Lydia Roth. Karns City graduate Emma Johns, one of the top returning scorers in NJCAA Division III, was the top player returning this year.

“Emma Johns blew out a knee in our third game this year and that really hurt us,” first-year head coach Dan O’Dell said. “We just had a rash of injuries all season. It caught up to us.”

Rob Snyder, BC3’s Director of Student Life who also serves as athletic director, said the team was down to four players when the decision was made to cut the season short.

“We’ve had knee injuries, concussions, players going in and out of concussion protocol,” Snyder said. “It’s hard for junior college programs to sustain a long run of things like that.

“We had no choice but to end it when we did. We didn’t have enough players to field a lineup.”

The Pioneers have enjoyed success in women’s basketball in recent years, producing All-Americans in Moniteau graduate Aslyn Pry, Karns City graduate Mackenzie Craig and Butler graduate Julia Baxter within the past decade. The program has enjoyed deep tournament runs during that time.

This year’s team began the season with eight players and ended with an eight-game losing streak.

“Ideally, you want to start a basketball season with 10 to 12 players, but that’s hard to do,” Snyder said. “Finding and keeping players isn’t easy at this level.”

Neither is getting through an entire season.

“Some of the opponents we had on our original schedule this year didn’t even field a team at all because of low numbers,” O’Dell said. “We’re not the only team this has happened to. We did everything we could do to keep going.

“We played a couple of games with five total players and two of them were in their first year of playing basketball. It just wasn’t working.”

O’Dell does not plan on returning as Pioneers coach next season as he is unsure he can commit to the job. Craig was one of his assistants this season.

“This was just one of those tough luck seasons,” Craig said. “You can’t control injuries. Our roster size this season was no different from when I played. It's community college basketball. That’s how it is.

“It’s a shame Dan’s not coming back because he helped these girls a lot. I would very much be interested in stepping in as head coach, but that’s not my call. That’s up to Rob and others, but, yeah, I’d love a shot at it.”

The only player on the BC3 2023-24 roster who is eligible to return next season is Keystone graduate Jozee Weaver.

“I’m concerned for the future of the program just because it’s harder and harder to find players and fill the roster,” O’Dell said.

“It’s unfortunate what happened this year,” Snyder allowed. “But we definitely plan on coming back with a team next season.”

Craig plans on sticking with the program despite the current numbers plight.

“It will be a rebuilding year,” she said. “Blank slate ... Let’s start fresh.”