BUTLER TWP— Butler basketball didn't end the 2006-07 season with any postseason glory.

The Golden Tornado boys lost a tiebreaker for the final WPIALplayoff berth in Section 3-AAAA while the girls suffered a first-round playoff loss to Latrobe.

There are brighter skies ahead, however.

Much brighter, if wins and losses are any indication.

Butler's boys and girls junior varsity and freshman teams won and won often this season. The four teams combined to win 83 of 92 games, in fact.

The girls junior varsity finished 23-0. The girls freshman team was 20-1.

"Our only loss was to Trinity at the North Allegheny Christmas Tournament," girls freshman coach Paul Epps said. "It was our fourth game in two days."

Epps is the husband of Butler varsity girls coach Dorothea Epps. Their son, Aaron, helped Dana Petruska coach the girls junior varsity squad.

"Talk about continuity and being on the same page,"Dorothea Epps said. "That's what we had. We're just one big program.

"Dana has been an asset to us from the start. Having been so successful as a high-school coach for so long really helped her here. She didn't know a lot of the stuff we did when she first joined us, so Aaron called out a lot of the plays. It all worked."

It worked despite injuries at the varsity level that forced changes for the JVs. When the Tornado lost guards Lyndsy Day and Mackenzie Greenert to season-ending knee injuries, Katherine Sylvia had to go from forward to starting point guard for the junior varsity.

Jenna Manuel switched from being an inside player to having to play the perimeter.

Still, the team kept winning.

Paul Epps said the freshman level is critical because "that's when the game becomes quicker and stays that way.

"Our goal is to get these freshmen ready to contribute to the varsity team as sophomores," he said.

Butler's freshman girls averaged 44 points per game and allowed just 28 per contest.

The freshman boys averaged 55 per game while allowing 35 — and had no player average in double figures while compiling a 21-3 record.

"We had 14 kids and seven of them got straight A's last semester,"boys freshman coach Jon McKay said. "And they've got basketball instincts on top of that.

"These guys never cared who scored. They never cared who played. They just wanted to win. ..."

Butler's freshmen blew out most of the teams they played, taking 15- to 25-point leads into the second half.

"That just enabled more kids to get on the court and gain experience,"McKay said. "These kids will make a major impact at the varsity level in a couple of years. I'm sure of that."

The junior varsity boys finished 19-5 this season, including a bizarre overtime win over North Allegheny in a game it trailed by five points with five seconds left in regulation.

"In our section, once you get to the junior varsity and varsity level, there are no kids left who can't play,"junior varsity coach Jerry Markle said. "Games come down to poise and hustle, who doesn't turn the ball over."

Butler boys basketball kept 32 players for the 2005-06 season. As a result, the junior varsity never practiced with the varsity unit.

This year, Butler kept 23 total players, enabling the varsity and junior varsity to practice together.

"That made such a difference,"Markle said. "Last year, the JVs practiced at a different time and in a different gym. Just getting to interact and practice with and against seniors really helped these kids this year."

Markle is in his ninth year as a developmental coach in Butler's basketball system.

"There's a great deal of continuity now,"he said. "The kids are learning a system from seventh grade on up. When they're sophomores, we don't have to teach them everything. We can work more on finer points of the game."

The finest point is winning.

"We've got a system in place to do that,"Markle said.