BUTLER TWP — The numbers are staggering.

Fourty-one invitational titles in track and field, 15 in cross country. Ten section titles. Seventeen WPIAL championships as an assistant and head coach.

Mike Seybert's coaching success at Butler High School is landing him in the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame.

He will join fellow inductees Howard Hammonds, T.J. McCance, Mickey Haley, Cliff Diehl and Donnie Brown for a ceremony at 5 p.m. Sept. 18 in the Butler High School cafeteria. The inductees will also be honored on the field prior to the Golden Tornado's football game against North Hills that evening.

In Seybert's case, it all started with a broken arm.

“I played basketball and baseball growing up,” said Seybert, a 1980 Butler graduate. “I broke my arm playing baseball my junior year and was out of everything.

“A couple of my best friends asked me to start running. I was hesitant at first, but I started to like the individual thing. If I didn't break my arm, I probably would never have gotten into running.”

Seybert went on to compete in cross country and track and field at Duquesne University, becoming a two-time MVP in both sports.

His personal-bests were 1 minute, 59 seconds in the 800 meters, 4:16.4 in the mile, 9:28.1 in the two-mile and 15:03 in the 5,000 meters.

“When I ran that 4:16, it was at a big meet at West Virginia University,” Seybert said. “It was only good for ninth in my heat and there was one other entire heat that was faster.

“I quickly realized I was best suited for distance running.”

Seybert has run 10 marathons, including the Boston and Pittsburgh marathons. He set his personal record of 2:37.31 at the Philadelphia Marathon.

But coaching is where he really made his mark. Last season marked Seybert's 30th as a track coach with the Golden Tornado.

“When I graduated from Duquesne, I talked with (then head track coach) Mark Farabee about helping out,” Seybert recalled. “I worked with the distance runners.

“I started running with Chris Nauman and Tom Swartwout during practice. They were so talented. They went on to Pitt. I developed a passion for helping kids achieve their athletic goals.

“Our first meet against North Allegheny in 1987, we lost by 41 points. Two years after that, we won three of four WPIAL championships. Once we got everybody on board and combined the coaching staff, it just took off,” Seybert added.

Butler had quality coaches for every track and field event. Seybert figured those coaches should work with everybody — boys and girls — in those events.

“We took advantage of the coaching and formed one big Butler track program, boys and girls,” Seybert said. “Getting the athletes out and drawing the skills out of them was key.”

The results speak for themselves.

Seybert put together a 172-14 dual meet record from 1990 to 2003, including 72-1 in both boys and girls track over a five-year period. Seybert ran the girls program, Curt Phillips ran the boys side.

“If they had team dual meets at the state level — that part of the postseason stops with the WPIAL team finals — I know we had teams that would have won state championships.

“Our throwing coaches — Mark Farabee, Rick Schontz, Bill McElroy — have been outstanding through the years. In years we struggled in other events, our shot put, discus and javelin were always strong.”

Seybert has coached 30 athletes to WPIAL titles in individual events, including 10 relay crowns.

“The best part about what we've done is that 90 percent of our kids play another sport or activity,” Seybert said. “Kids who do the same thing 12 months a year go through mental burnout and wear and tear on the same muscles.

“I coach sports to be fourth on a kid's list, behind church, family and school.”

He pointed out that the average grade point average of Butler's senior track athletes was 3.9 over a 15-year period.

“I've always taken a lot of pride in the versatility of our athletes in a number of areas,” Seybert said. “Life is so short. You just have to go after it.”

This is the fifth in a series of articles profiling the 2015 inductees into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame