County sports hall of fame inductees share stories of support
BUTLER TWP — Standing out in any sport or profession signifies passion and dedication. Getting help along the way can only bolster one’s chances of achieving success.
For the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame’s eight latest inductees, the support they received during their journey was a recurring theme during the 57th Annual Banquet at Butler County Community College’s Founders Hall on Saturday, April 27.
“I thank my mom for taking care of our three kids so I could go coach,” said Dana Petruska, who tallied 518 wins as girls basketball coach at Mars and Deer Lakes, winning a state title with the former in 2018. “And I thank my dad for giving me the love of athletics. He showed me the passion and discipline you need to improve.”
Tammie Kelley was a three-sport star at Knoch High School before graduating in 1983. She accepted a full scholarship to run track at Slippery Rock University.
“I was a farm girl, and farm girls really didn’t participate in sports,” she said. “Several coaches at Knoch sat down with my parents and convinced them to allow me to play. They said I could receive a scholarship to go to college. My mom was all about college, and my dad was all about getting barn work done. As long as they could both be satisfied, everything was good.
“You don’t get to where you are in life without having the right people there.”
Former Butler swimmer Josh Barthlow, who won four WPIAL titles and a state title ahead of a decorated career at East Carolina University, said: “I couldn’t have done it without my family and coaches. They helped put me in a position to succeed, and I’m sharing this honor with them.”
Seneca Valley High and Slippery Rock University graduate Brandon Fusco played eight seasons in the NFL as an offensive lineman. He’d already earned induction into his high school and college halls of fame, but was visibly moved when it was his turn to speak.
“I’ve done this before and you’d think it would get easier,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I played with All-Pro players and Hall of Fame players in the NFL and none of them have as close of a relationship with their head coach from college as I do,” Fusco added of former SRU coach George Mihalik, who was in attendance. “If I could go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
A large portion of Fusco’s athletic career was chronicled by longtime Butler Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto, who took over that role in 1997.
“Anytime you take a new job in this business, there’s a lot of unknowns,” Enrietto said. “What is the staff and management going to be like?
“Mark Mann was the managing editor at the Eagle for the first 19 years I worked there. He would praise you when you deserved it and be critical of you when you needed it. That’s all you can ask for, and I appreciate him for it.”
Kevin Doyle was a soccer and track star at Knoch in the 1990s. He went on to succeed at the collegiate and national stage.
“Les Shoop is more known for being a basketball coach at Knoch, but he was my distance coach in high school and a great one.
“We were just big enough to be (Class) 3A, but that meant going up against schools that were much bigger than us. Then I get to college (St. Francis, Pa.), another small school, but we competed at the Division I level. Because of that, I was able to go up against the best.”
Lily Grenci ended her high school career as Mars girls basketball’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder. She then turned in a standout career at Siena College.
“I had great teammates on both teams,” she said. “I could be up here forever talking about them. I was glad to be surrounded by them.”
John Papa retired in 2022 after 35 years of coaching cross country and track and field at SRU. He guided teams and individuals to success at the state, regional and national level.
“Paul Lueken was director of athletics at SRU for most of my time there,” he said. “He always supported us and made his job look easy.
“I was surrounded by great assistant coaches who did a lot of good things for the two programs.”
