BUTLER TWP — The 15th Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony is slated for 6 p.m. Friday in the high school cafeteria.

Gaining induction this year are football place-kicker/punter Justin Cherry, baseball great Clint Eury, track and field record-holder Tom Paserba, multiple-sport standout Allison Sams Devaux and longtime soccer coach Jeff Schnur.

Cherry and Sams continue to hold athletic records at Butler that have stood for years. Cherry booted a 47-yard field goal in 2001 and Sams won the state shot put title with a mark of 42 feet, 1 inch, in 1994.

Paserba, who died in 2013, was part of the Golden Tonado’s 4x200 relay team that set the WPIAL record in 1969. That record will stand forever as the 4x200 is no longer an event in the WPIAL meet.

Following the ceremony in the cafeteria, the inductees will be presented and recognized at halftime of the New Castle-Butler boys basketball game Friday night.

Here is a look at this year’s inductees:

A 2002 Butler graduate, Cherry followed in the footsteps of older brother Jason as the Tornado’s kicker. Both were youth soccer players. Besides owning the record for Butler’s longest field goal, Justin was an all-state punter and place-kicker.

“Jason got into it and it looked like fun,” Justin said of football. “The biggest adjustment was kicking with all of the football gear on. I was used to kicking with only chin pads and spikes. Once I made the adjustment and practiced ... it was just kicking a ball.”

Justin went on to be successful on 54 of 55 PATs and 21of 28 field goal attempts. His punting average was 41.2 yards and 48 of his 92 punts landed inside the 20-yard line.

He played college football at Rhode Island and was named Atlantic 10 Special Teams Player of the Week in his first game. His collegiate career was curtailed by injury.

“I was a preferred walk-on at Rhode Island and became a scholarship player,” Justin said. “I tore up my knee in my sophomore year and could not return. I left college and went into culinary school.”

Cherry owns his own traveling baking business today, up and down the East Coast.

A 2001 Butler graduate, Eury was one of the most feared hitters in Tornado baseball history. He hit .412 with 18 walks in one season and hit nearly .500 in another. He went on to Penn State University as a first baseman and became the Nittany Lions’ closer on the mound.

“I still hit fourth in the lineup and played first base,” Eury said of his college career. “But I pitched in high school as well. We were playing a non-conference game in college and our coach wanted to save our main pitchers for Big 10 games.

“He asked me if I’d take the mound to close out a game against Cornell. I did well in that role and it eventually stuck.”

Eury had a 0.38 earned run average in 24 innings out of the Penn State bullpen in 2003. His 12th career save in a 2005 game against Minnesota set the Nittany Lions record in that category.

A 1970 Butler graduate, Paserba joined Ted Bobby, Frank Hilovsky and Chick Maffei in setting the Butler mile relay record that stood for 50 years before the mark was broken in 2022. He ran with Hilovsky, Ted and Mke Bobby in setting the 4x200 record.

Also a three-year football letterman, Paserba also competed in the Penn Relays and set track records at Slippery Rock University.

“Tom Paserba was a true competitor by word of all his high school and college teammates we talked with,” Butler track ad field coach Mike Seybert said. “Talent and speed, combined with an incredible desire to win made him one of the top athletes in what I call a golden era in track and field.”

Despite running on cinder tracks, Paserba ran the 200 in 22.24 seconds and his splits were under 50 seconds in the mile relay.

A1994 Butler graduate, Sams earned 12 varsity letters during her high school career, along with earning four more letters as a trombone player in the band.

She lettered in track and basketball for four years each, played volleyball, soccer and ran cross country for a year. Besides setting the shot out record, she scored points in the triple jump, 400, 800 and all three throws.

“She was probably the best complete athlete when she was at Butler,” Seybert said.

Sams went on to compete at the University of Pittsburgh in the heptathlon. She left Pitt early to attend nursing school and is a nurse today. She is also a ranked USTA tennis player.

“I’m grateful to all if my coaches in high school. They helped shape me into the person I am toady,” Sams said. “I cherish those times.”

A 1972 Butler graduate, Schnur went on to become a teacher and adminstrator at his alma mater. He co-founded the Butler County Soccer Association in 1976 and was head boys soccer coach for the Tornado from 1982 through 1993, winning six section championships.

Schnur was named WPIAL Coach of the Year in 1992.

“When I became an adminstrator, I wasn’t allowed to coach anymore,” he said. “I had to step down as boys coach because of that rule.”

Schnur returned to soccer coaching, however, working as a coach for the Beading, Northern Steel and Pittsburgh Hot Spurs clubs. He was an assistant under Marlene Peoples with the Butler girls soccer team for five years, helping the team to state runner-up finishes in the early 2000’s.

He is currently an assistant coach with the Tornado boys team.

“I love the sport ad I love working with kids,” Schnur said. “That’s kept me with it.”