The Butler Eagle has celebrated its top male and female athletes of the school year each of the past two summers.

This time, we are announcing our nominees for the honors and letting readers and fans vote for who they think is the best of the best in Butler County high school athletics. The male 2025-26 AOTY nominees are out now, with the female nominees being released Tuesday. Fans will have a week to vote in the polls at the end of the nomination lists. We’ll announce the fan-vote winners after polls close.

In July, the Eagle sports staff will unveil its Male and Female Athletes of the Year.

Meet the Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year nominees:

Karns City’s Mason Bell (17) starred in football and boys soccer in the fall, then won District 9 medals during the track and field season. He’s one of five nominees for this year’s Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

Rob McGraw

Sports: football, boys soccer, track

Bell has one of the more well-rounded resumes of any nominee. Set to study at West Point in the fall, the three-sport standout landed on the Butler Eagle Sweet 16 Defense as a stud defensive end who recorded 58 tackles and 12 sacks while leading the Gremlins to the District 9 Class 2A football title. He earned D9 Region 1 honors and started at offensive tackle. Bell also pulled off a rare double, serving as a starting forward for the boys soccer team that same season and finishing with 15 goals and four assists for the district 2A champions. Bell, who was named a Butler Eagle soccer all-star, also earned All-KSAC honors on the track as part of the 4x800-meter and 4x400 relays that earned D9 silver and bronze, respectively, and qualified states.

Karns City's Cole Johnston led the Gremlins to a District 9 football title and helped the baseball team win gold as well. He was also an excellent basketball player and contributed to medal-winning relay teams during the track season. Ralph LoVuolo/Butler Eagle

Sports: football, basketball, baseball, track

Johnston had a breakout season in football, where he spearheaded a dynamic rushing attack as the starting quarterback and led the Gremlins to district gold. The Butler Eagle Sweet 16 Offense all-star led the team with 769 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground, plus another 1,232 yards and 13 TDs passing while serving as an effective punter with 20 punts downed inside the opposing 20-yard line. Following that performance, Johnston earned Butler Eagle all-county honorable mention honors in basketball at guard, averaging 17.5 points and eight rebounds per game. He then matched Bell’s double with a superb spring season in which he ran the fifth-fastest boys time in the 100 meters (11.00 seconds) in the county and was on the 4x400 relay team with Bell, all while hitting a team-leading .422 with 21 RBIs and three home runs for a KC baseball team that won the D9 final.

North Catholic’s Logan Schade, center, surprised this year by winning the PIAA Track and Field Championships Class 2A boys 400-meter relay title, his first and only year on the track. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

Rob McGraw

Sports: football, track

Schade’s electrifying speed provided two highlights at the beginning and end of the 2025-26 school year. The senior running back and safety produced a 344-yard, four-TD masterpiece against Blackhawk in Week 3 of the football season, then went on to finish the year with 1,104 yards and 18 touchdowns for the playoff-bound Trojans. He somehow followed that up with something better, making the most of his only high school track and field season by winning the PIAA Class 2A boys 400-meter race in 48.86 after running to silver a week earlier in the WPIAL championships.

Butler’s Santino Sloboda is the reigning Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year and followed that up with a record-breaking senior season that saw him claim a third straight WPIAL title, a fourth straight PIAA medal and set the all-time county wins record. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

Rob McGraw

Sport: boys wrestling

Sloboda is the reigning Male Athlete of the Year and followed all-time great distance runner Drew Griffith (2024). Sloboda, set to wrestle at the University of Pittsburgh starting next season, capped one of the best wrestling careers in Butler County history in March by winning his third straight WPIAL Class 3A title, a third consecutive PIAA West Regional championship and claiming his second bronze and fourth medal overall at the PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships. The 127-pounder graduated with the program and county career record for wins with 176.

Butler’s Nolan Stefaniak was nearly unhittable all season as the co-ace of the Golden Tornado’s untouchable rotation that led a run to the program’s first WPIAL title and a PIAA silver medal. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle

Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle

Sport: baseball

Stefaniak was nearly untouchable during Butler’s historic baseball season that ended with a runner-up finish in the PIAA championship. The Penn State commit offers a mid-90s fastball and electric off-speed stuff which drew MLB scouts this spring ahead of the 2026 MLB Draft. The right-hander didn’t give up an earned run until the WPIAL Class 6A championship win over North Allegheny and at one point had six straight scoreless appearances in the regular season. He posted a 1.18 ERA with an 8-2 record, fanning 85 batters in just 59.1 innings of work. And that doesn’t even count his bat — he hit .364 with two home runs, 20 RBIs and 16 runs scored. In the past three years, he hit .343, never lower than .324, and went 15-6 on the mound with a 1.58 ERA and 179 strikeouts.

Cast your vote below. If the poll doesn’t appear, click this link to vote.