Butler’s Stoner WPIAL Wrestling Coach of Year
CANONSBURG — Consistency, passion, desire — all of those words have been used to describe Scott Stoner’s career as wrestling coach at Butler.
Now in his 29th year with the Golden Tornado, Stoner has put together one of his most memorable seasons in 2021-22. He secured his 400th career dual match victory. He sent all 12 of his section qualifiers on to the WPIAL Tournament.
And he was named WPIAL Class 3A Coach of the Year prior to the district tournament’s championship round Saturday at Canon-McMillan High School.
“It’s been a good year,” Stoner said. “We had good showings at the Clearfield Tournament and Virginia Duals, qualified a lot of kids for down here (at WPIAL tourney) ... Our body of work has been solid.”
The Coach of the Year honor is voted upon by WPIAL wrestling coaches. Each section votes for its respective Coach of the Year. Those winners are then voted upon by the entire district for the overall WPIAL Coach of the Year honor.
“The fact it’s voted on by other coaches, this really means a lot,” Stoner said. “I haven’t accomplished some things that other coaches in the WPIAL have, but we’ve built a strong program over the years.
“Wrestlers have come back to help out and we’ve developed the sport in the community at the youth level. That’s far from just me. A lot of people deserve credit for that.”
One of the former Tornado wrestlers to return to the program is Alex Evanoff, an assistant coach who helped out with the team during the WPIAL tourney.
“It’s the consistency of the program that impresses me,” Evanoff said. “Since I wrestled for Coach Stoner, I was gone about 10 years. I came back and the program is still run the same way. Nothing’s really changed and that’s a good thing.
“He models consistency day after day. He sinks a lot of time into every wrestler on the team.”
Retired Slippery Rock University wrestling coach and Butler County Area Sports Hall of Famer Fred Powell coached Stoner at SRU. He’s been a member of Stoner’s staff at Butler for a number of years now.
“Scott was always intense as a wrestler and a little reckless at times,” Powell said. “He was highly competitive then and he’s highly competitive now. He became a technician on the mat and that’s spilled over into his coaching.”
Powell said he respects the way Stoner has grown the sport of wrestling in Butler.
“The work he’s put into the junior high and elementary programs speak for itself,” he said. “Now he’s got the Legacy (Wrestling) Club started up. Wrestling has grown in the Butler community and Scott is primarily responsible for that.”
Stoner said he and Butler wrestling “still have work to do.”
“The day I leave, I want Butler wrestling to carry on,” he added. “I want to make sure it’s in a position to do that for the next coach.”
Stoner’s work isn't done this season. Butler heavyweight Jake Pomykata is competing in the PIAA Tournament this weekend. Seneca Valley 113-pounder Tyler Chappell and 215-pounder Liam Volk-Klos will be in Hershey as well.
