From forfeit to finals
This is the fourth in a series of articles profiling the 2018 inductees into the Butler County Sports Hall of FameBUTLER TWP — One win, 17 losses — and the one came via forfeit.The Butler High School girls basketball program had to start somewhere.Su Parisi — known as Su Benjamin back then as the Golden Tornado's first girls hoop coach — saw to it that the program flourished pretty quickly.“That first team should have gone winless,” said Leo “Bucky” Parisi, Su's longtime husband. “Four years later, they were playing for the WPIAL championship.“She did a darn good job there. She was great with those girls.”Su Parisi went on to compile a 68-28 record at Butler. Her 1978 team finished 18-2 and played for the WPIAL title at the Civic Arena.Parisi died late last year at age 66. She will be inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame posthumously at the organization's 53rd annual banquet April 26 at the Lyndora American Legion Hall.She coached a pair of previous BCSHOF inductees — Lisa Zitalone (1988) and Jody Imbrie Smith (1989) — during her time at Butler.“We had a lot of talent on those teams and Su knew how to develop that talent and use it effectively,” Imbrie Smith said. “She got the most out of us.“She wasn't a real boisterous coach. She was a quiet type, but she was firm with us when she needed to be.”Following that 1-17 “exhibition” season in 1974-75, Parisi led Butler to a 9-5 record in 1976. The 1977 team exploded to a 17-4 season with such players as Ann Kotch, Sherry Rennier, Beth Painter, Zitalone and Imbrie.Imbrie, Zitalone and Lisa Scott were stalwarts on the 1978 team that reached the WPIAL finals. Butler began that season with a 10-game winning streak and wound up snapping Franklin Regional's 42-game home court winning streak.“I played some varsity when I was a freshman,” Imbrie Smith recalled. “That was hard back then because freshmen were in a different school and I didn't really know the upperclassmen well.“Su made that transition work. She made me feel very comfortable about everything and I'll never forget that.”Such a story doesn't surprise Parisi's husband at all.“Su was one of the most compassionate people I've ever met in my life,” he said. “It was always about somebody else with her. She had the demeanor to be a great coach.”
Parisi's final coaching season with the Golden Tornado was 1979. Butler was 23-6 that year. Imbrie ended the season with a school-record 1,252 points and netted a record 37 in one game that season.She went on to play at Grove City College. Zitalone went on to play at Clarion University.“The way our high school program started, a lot of interest was sparked right away,” Imbrie Smith said. “Younger girls used to come to our games, see us win and they wanted to be like us.“Su laid the groundwork for all of that. So many girls have come through the program since, gone on to college ... She has a lot to do with all of that.”Imbrie Smith said it's “a shame Su can't be there to accept this Hall of Fame honor herself.“But everybody should be proud. I know I am, for being part of that program for four years.”Tickets to the BCSHOF banquet are available at Moses Jewelers at the Clearview Mall, Snack n' Pack in Butler, Saxonburg Drug, Parker's Appliance in Chicora and Maddalon Jewelers in Zelienople.
