Saying goodbye to the Butler County sports year of 2011 is difficult —because it was such a good one.

Trying to come up with a county coach of the year from all of the worthy candidates is truly an unenviable task.

Seneca Valley softball coach George Trew led an underdog team to the WPIAL finals. SV baseball coach Eric Semega won the WPIAL and finished runner-up in the state.

Moniteau football coach Jeff Campbell led the Warriors to a perfect regular season and district title. Ditto Jeff Bell in Grove City. Slippery Rock’s Brendan Hathaway led Slippery Rock High School from 0-10 to 7-4 and a playoff berth.

One can’t do much better than Mars girls soccer coach Blair Gerlach. His team went undefeated and won the WPIAL and state championships.

There are other contenders as well and the best I can do is narrow my final choices down to two.

My Butler County Co-Coaches of the Year for 2011 are Butler boys basketball coach Matt Clement and Knoch football coach Mike King — for different reasons.

Two true tests of a coach are how much better his team gets as the season goes on and how he guides a team through unexpected adversity.

Clement draws an A-plus for the former, King an A-plus for the latter.

The Golden Tornado basketball team lost nine games during the regular season, including early blowouts at home to Shaler (67-49) and North Allegheny (86-55).

The loss to the Tigers occurred Jan. 7 and the Butler team appeared headed nowhere. Clement restructured the squad, reinvented roles and the Tornado began improving with every game.

A heartbreaking 40-39 loss at Shaler Jan. 25 was followed by a stunning 50-47 upset of the top-seeded Titans a month later in the WPIAL Tournament. Butler went on to win five postseason games, its only playoff losses being a 47-45 decision to Gateway and 51-42 setback to eventual PIAA runner-up Mt. Lebanon.

King was bringing back a solid football team at Knoch and the Knights went on to produce the first perfect regular season in the program’s history.

Knoch had just defeated rival Mars to complete that perfect season and honored all senior players and cheerleaders during a pregame ceremony that Friday night.

Less than a week later. one of those cheerleaders, Alex Summers, was killed in a car crash and the school’s community had to deal with tragedy while trying to move forward.

King credited the kids for their resiliency — which they certainly showed — but kids look to their adult leaders in times like these. King and his staff were there.

Knoch could have dropped that first playoff game and no one would have cast an ounce of blame. The Summers funeral was the same morning of the game and West Allegheny — a seasoned playoff opponent — took a quick 7-0 lead on the Knights that night.

But Knoch rallied for a 28-7 win, then won two more playoff games to reach Heinz Field, a facility in which Summers wanted to cheer.

King kept the ship steady. Knoch’s football team realized a once-in-a-lifetime dream as a result.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle