BUTLER TWP— Timing is everything — and the timing might be right for Lori Kline and Ed Swierczyk Jr.

Kline and Swierczyk were hired as the new varsity head coaches of Butler's softball and boys lacrosse teams, respectively, during Tuesday night's school board meeting.

Both teams are coming off losing seasons, but both return a plethora of young talent next spring and both coaches were involved with their respective programs this year.

Kline coached the Golden Tornado junior varsity softball squad to a 10-4 record this season. She served as Lindsay Millea's varsity assistant for two years before that and coached Butler's junior high softball team in 2004 and 2005.

Millea resigned this year after three seasons and relocated to California with her husband. Butler was 8-10 this season, 4-8 in section play.

"We've got a strength-and-conditioning program in place this fall,"Kline said. "We're working in the weight room, we'll have open gym. ... We're still working on skill building.

"Most of our girls have been playing fast-pitch softball in Butler during the summer and that experience is beginning to show."

Butler graduated only four seniors from this year's team and will return one of the top players in the section in shortstop Jenna Geibel. Second baseman Sadie Marak and pitchers Angie Reddick and Amanda Skidmore saw ample playing time as freshmen as well.

"There's a lot of young talent coming up through the program,"Kline said. "We have the ability to develop into a playoff contender. It'd be nice to see that happen this year.

"I believe this will be a smooth transition. Lindsay and I have the same style of coaching and we've worked together in developing this program. I'm a familiar face to these girls."

Likewise, Swierczyk is a familiar face to the Tornado boys lacrosse team. He coached the squad to an 8-11 record and into the second round of the Western Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association playoffs in the spring.

Butler finished fourth in WPSLADivision 2. Boys lacrosse is becoming an official WPIAL and PIAAsport this school year.

"This is really good timing for us,"Swierczyk said of the WPIALaffiliation. "We lost to Kiski Prep, the eventual league champion, in the playoffs last year and they had some fifth-year seniors.

"Our team was full of sophomores along with two or three juniors. We improved drastically as the year went on."

Butler boys lacrosse graduated only two seniors this spring: Nate Cleary and Josh Bartley. Cleary, a defender, was the only senior starter and will be playing at Penn State-Behrend this year.

Two Tornado sophomores, Tyler Kotch and Nick Elliott, made the all-division team.

"I had to tell some college recruiters they couldn't talk to my players because they were only sophomores,"Swierczyk said. "They (recruiters) thought they were older."

Before coming to Butler last year, Swierczyk spent six years coaching lacrosse at Pine-Richland, guiding a middle school team to a 13-0 record there. He also coached for two years at Peters Township.