Here today, gone tomorrow
Here are the remaining top 15 local sports stories of 2010, which were selected by a vote of the Butler Eagle sports department:
No. 2 — Jim Rankin hired as Butler High football coach, then resigns.Rankin, 62, was tapped in February to take the reins of the Golden Tornado football program. He resigned for family reasons in November after posting an 0-9 record.
No. 3 — Mars hockey team wins state championship.The Planets capped a 24-2 season with a second consecutive Class A Penguins Cup title and a 4-1 triumph over Bayard Rustin in the state championship game. The win avenged a 5-0 loss to Rustin in the 2009 state finale.
No. 4 — Mars girls soccer rolls to WPIAL title.The Planets remained unbeaten throughout the WPIAL schedule before winning the Class AA crown. Mars reeled off 12 consecutive shutouts before bowing to fellow unbeaten Mercyhurst Prep, 3-0, in the PIAA semifinals.
No. 5 — Brandon Fusco wins Gene Upshaw Award as NCAA Division II Lineman of the Year.</B>The Seneca Valley graduate and Slippery Rock University senior center further cemented his NFL draft status by becoming the first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference player to snag this national honor.<B>No. 6 — Butler BlueSox sold to five local owners.</B>The summer Prospect League baseball team was sold by Leo Trich shortly after the 2010 season ended. Trich maintains 10 percent of his stock in the team with William “Wink” Robinson, Ray Conlon, Mike Fiorina, Gordon Marburger and Matt Clement sharing the remainder of the franchise.<B>No. 7 — Mike Surkalo dies at age 90.</B>The sports editor of the Butler Eagle for 39 years (1946-85), Surkalo walked to Forbes Field from Butler in 1960, living up to his word that he would do so if the Pirates won the National League pennant that season.<B>No. 8 — Mars' Maggie Gruber wins PIAA swimming title.</B>Only a freshman, Gruber won the PIAA championship in the 100-yard butterfly after finishing second at the WPIAL Championships.<B>No. 9 — Austin Miele rushes for record 448 yards in a WPIAL playoff game.</B>The Mars senior running back set a WPIAL record for most rushing yards in a first-round playoff game against Hollidaysburg. Miele was seven yards short of Connellsville's Marcus Furman's regular season single-game mark.
<B>No. 10 — Meghan Schnur meets the president.</B>As part of the Women's Professional Soccer champion Sky Blue team in New Jersey, Butler graduate Meghan Schnur got to meet President Barack Obama at the White House.<B>No. 11 — Brian Minto loses WBO world cruiserweight title fight in Germany.</B>The Butler boxer's first professional cruiserweight bout was against 25-year-old champion Marco Huck in his home country. Minto was knocked down three times before retiring from the bout after the ninth round.<B>No. 12 — Charlie Holben badly burned in crash at Lernerville Speedway.</B>The longtime Sprint car driver from Cabot was severely burned in a fiery crash in front of the grandstands June 4. He recovered in time to walk his daughter down the aisle at her September wedding.
<B>No. 13 — Union football coach Al Pryor dies.</B>The veteran coach committed suicide the morning after the Golden Knights' season opener. Longtime friend and assistant coach Dave Louder took over as head coach and Union won four games, the most for the program since 1997 — a team coached by Pryor.<B>No. 14 — Butler boys tennis team goes unbeaten.</B>Putting together arguably the best season in the program's history, the Golden Tornado tennis team went unbeaten in team matches and wound up winning the team state championship.<B>No. 15 — Cranberry Township advances to PONY World Series.</B>Cranberry came out of the losers bracket to win the Pony-13 East Zone Baseball Championship at Graham Park and advance to the PONY World Series for the first time.<BR></BR><BR></BR>
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