BUTLER TWP — His face reacts to every move on the mat, his body cringing with every move during the course of each match.

Butler High School wrestling coach Scott Stoner does more than wear the sport on his sleeve. Wrestling is embedded deep in his heart. He has been at the helm of the Golden Tornado mat program for 29 years — or all but two seasons of its existence.

Last weekend at the Virginia Duals, Stoner picked up the 400th dual match win of his career. He took a 403-182 career record into this weekend’s Clearfield Duals. He is the active wins leader among all WPIAL wrestling coaches and is one of only five district mat mentors all-time to reach the 400-win plateau.

Chuck Tursky, who coached at Burrell and Kiski Area, is WPIAL wrestling’s all-time wins leader with 505.

“For anyone not involved in it, it’s a hard thing to explain,” Stoner, 53, said of the sport. “I’ve always referred to wrestling as a way of life because that’s what it is. It’s a firm part of my fiber. It’s everything I do.

“I wear some type of Butler wrestling item pretty much all the time.”

Also a teacher at Butler, Stoner formerly taught at Seneca Valley. He made the commute back to Butler every day to coach wrestling practice. He figured to one day replace Ken Lockey — a legendary coach in his own right — as head coach of the Raider program.

Stoner took over as Butler head coach in 1993 after Bill McClarnon — Butler’s first mat coach — left the program after going 3-20 over two seasons.

“I was supposed to be an assistant coach at Seneca for a year, then maybe step in as head coach,” Stoner said. “Since I was teaching there, it seemed like the logical move, but I couldn’t turn my back on the kids here. I felt like I developed this program ... it was mine and I didn’t want to leave it.”

Don’t expect him to anytime soon.

Stoner has coached Butler to 25 tournament championships. He’s coached 33 section champions and 174 WPIAL qualifiers. Yet his teams have never won a section championship nor ever produced a state champion.

“I’m honored that my win total ranks pretty high, but I’ve never considered myself among the best coaches in history around here,” Stoner said. “The WPIAL has the best high school wrestling in the country. I firmly believe that.

“I take pride in having a consistent, competitive program year after year. Of course, you always strive to get better and I’m still doing that.”

His legacy is not lost among the wrestling fraternity. A number of Butler wrestlers have returned to the program over the years to help coach, whether it be at the varsity, junior high or elementary school levels.

“Scott is simply a remarkable human being,” former Butler wrestler and assistant coach T.J. McCance said. “He built this program. His hands are on it at every level, from elementrary on up.

“My son calls him Uncle Scott. I love that. Scott is now working on coaching an entirely new generation of wrestlers. He’s not slowing down. Not at all. He’s as passionate as ever.”

Butler athletic director Bill Mylan was an assistant coach under Stoner for 13 years.

“He’s an ambassador for the sport,” Mylan said. “He tirelessly promotes wrestling and he’s my best friend in the world. Whenever he does give it up ... we’re not going to find another Scott Stoner.”

Butler Junior High coach Don Geibel is a former Golden Tornado wrestler who was a basketball player through eighth grade. He said Stoner recruited him for wrestling out of gym class his freshman year.

“I didn’t join the team until the following year,” Geibel recalled. “I weighed all of 95 to 100 pounds. Some of my friends were wrestlers and I came on board.

“I picked up his passion. I loved it. When he (Stoner) called me a few years later telling my he had an opening for a junior high coach, I was all in. It didn’t take me long to pick up his passion for it.”

Geibel pointed out that Butler faces plenty of obstacles in terms of section and WPIAL competition every year.

“It’s never easy,” he said. “North Allegheny has won something like 28 section championships. It’s hard to crack that. But Scott has built a community program this town can be proud of.”

McCance agreed, saying Stoner “has impacted hundreds of kids’ lives through the years.”

Seneca Valley wrestling coach Kevin Wildrick said he respects Stoner’s longevity in the sport.

“That program is his. He built it, he maintains it and he’s growing it,” Wildrick said. “You have to respect what Scott has accomplished there.”

Including youth wrestling, Butler hosts six tournaments per year.

“That’s not just me. It takes a lot of people to run those events,” Stoner said. “Former wrestlers, volunteers, parents of kids in the program, they all get involved. It’s rewarding to see so many people pitching in to make those tournaments happen. That stuff helps keep me going.

“I see (former Butler wrestlers) Blake Caudill and Alex Evanoff, now 30 or so, come into our room, still willing to get on the mat with these kids. Fred Powell (Butler assistant and Stoner’s former coach at Slippery Rock University) is still coaching in his 70’s, showing kids things.

“You surround yourself with people like that, it’s easy to get immersed in this lifestyle,” Stoner added.