Saints on march
The band was playing, the student body was cheering and everyone was singing "When the saints come marching in."
Butler Catholic sent its Saints marching up to Erie with a huge pep rally Friday morning in its gymnasium.
The school's seventh- and eighth-grade boys basketball team opened play that night in the Catholic Youth Organization Diocesan State Tournament with a 51-32 victory over Our Mother of Sorrows at Gannon University.
Bobby Swartwout recorded 22 points and nine rebounds, while Vinny Schmidt added 16 points and seven boards.
The Saints are in the state tournament for only the third time in school history and for the first time since 1999. The 1989 team also qualified.
"This may be our most talented team out of all of them," said coach Harry Leyland, who has been involved with the program since 1978.
The team left for Erie in vans Friday morning, but not before the student body filled the gym and honored the players with cheers and songs.
"We want to thank the students, teachers and the whole school for all the support," Saints player Sam Cleary said. "We appreciate our parents driving us to all the games, putting the ads in the paper for us — it's really nice."
Butler Catholic is now 37-1 and has won five tournaments. Its lone loss was in overtime to Moon on a buzzer-beater.
"We were leading by a point with that last shot in the air when the horn went off," assistant coach Rob Swartwout said.
The Saints were 16-0 in section and Pittsburgh Diocesan Tournament play this year.
"Our season is broken down into three phases,"Leyland told the gathering in the gym. "We took care of the section. We took care of the dioceses. Now we will take care of the state — God willing."
Butler Catholic is one of eight teams in the state tournament. Each team will play three games at Gannon through Sunday, but once a team loses, it cannot win the state title.
The Saints have never won the state championship.
"We've got the size and speed, and that's a pretty good combination,"coach Swartwout said. "These kids have been together since fourth grade. It's nice to see all this hard work pay off."
Bobby Swartwout leads the Saints with 14.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Schmidt and Billy Smith average about 10 points per game.
Those three, along with John Barkus, will also be among the 12 players representing the Diocesan North All-Star team in the 30th Roundball Classic April 12 to 14.
Swartwout was a standout on the Butler Township baseball team that reached the Little League World Series regional last summer.
Joining Cleary, Swartwout, Barkus, Smith and Schmidt on the squad are Joe Holfelder, Josh Dymun, Joe Friel, Corbin Seezox, Michael Schenck, Philip Kletzli and Michael Connelly.
"We wanted to make this day special for the team,"Butler Catholic principal Sister John Ann Mulhern said. "These boys deserve this."
