A boom in lacrosse, girls wrestling and club sports in Butler County in last 25 years: ‘I wish I lived back in this time’
Logan Downes remembers wrestling against one girl growing up in the 1990s and 2000s. Kara Sroka remembers just three or four notable travel softball programs in the Pittsburgh region when she was young. A Western Pennsylvania state lacrosse champion was not on anyone’s radar when Abby Latona was playing in Lancaster.
How times have changed.
In the last 25 years, club teams have boomed in multiple sports, Mars boys lacrosse won a PIAA title and competed for three others, and girls wrestling is growing rapidly across the Keystone State and in Butler County.
And that’s not even counting girls flag football, which will make its official PIAA debut in Spring 2026.
The Butler County sports scene has evolved dramatically since the turn of the century.
The theme of the evolution has been breaking barriers. Wrestling was once almost exclusively the domain of boys and men. Now, varsity girls sport is at four public schools in the county and is likely to grow. And Mars’ state boys lacrosse championship has proven the Pittsburgh region can win a sport that has largely been dominated by schools from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. The girls program, too, has become a WPIAL powerhouse and hopes to develop into a state contender.
“I think there are more clubs, and it’s not just including the boys. … There are just only-girl practices and try-it nights,” Downes, Knoch’s girls wrestling coach, said of the surge of youth wrestling clubs and programs catering to girls.
“I wish I lived back in this time rather than back in the stone age.”
His 16-year-old daughter at Burrell High, Maddy Seelye, recently got interested in wrestling.
He said seeing girls wrestlers at state-level and national meets when he was growing up in the Burrell school district was “few and far between.” Now, “the sport’s actually starting to equal out” with the boys. To him, some of the best girls wrestlers are nearly as good as the best boys wrestlers, he believes.
According to the National Federation of High School Sports, the number of girls wrestlers across the nation has jumped from 31,654 in 2021-22 to 64,257 in 2023-24, the most recent year for data. In Pa., that number has doubled from 1,080 girls in 2022-23 to 2,140.
A few years ago when Downes coached at Burrell, he had a one girl on the boys team and a few coming up the pipeline in elementary school, but not the kind of numbers he sees now at Knoch, which held its first varsity season in 2024-25, and elsewhere since the PIAA sanctioned the sport in 2023.
“I just think it’s the sport,” Downes said when asked about the reason for the growth. “I think social media has something to do with it (too). … Anybody can start it, any shape, any size, any strength, any experience.”
Butler girls wrestling coach Nathan Bottiger said now girls have seen trailblazers like Butler’s Anna Malovich and Knoch’s Miranda Lajevic dominate and want to be strong like them and their brothers who wrestled.
“Some of these girls that started with no other girls around them really kind of showed this was a possibility,” Bottiger said.
Girls enjoy wrestling’s physicality, just like the boys. That’s part of why Latona thinks girls lacrosse is taking off in the area, too.
Latona, who grew up in Pa.’s lacrosse hotbed of Lancaster, moved to Mars in 2021 and coaches the varsity girls program, which has won three straight WPIAL titles.
The county has produced numerous district and state soccer champions in recent years. Like soccer, lacrosse requires athleticism and skill “that makes the sport so special,” but is also more of a contact sport.
“I think the big answer to (why lacrosse is growing) is these girls want to compete and want to be good,” Latona said. “You look at a team of 30 girls, and some play more graceful than others, but those that are gritty … are really standing out.”
There were a total of 15,820 high school lacrosse players in Pa. in 2023-24, per NFHS. That’s an increase of 49.8% from 10,560 since 2009-10.
Like girls wrestling, not all Butler County schools have a lacrosse program, though. Latona said it will require people or coaches who really love the game living in a community and being willing to invest years to build a youth, middle school and high school infrastructure. Introducing kids to lacrosse in gym classes would also help.
But she’s also seeing more girls pick up lacrosse sticks by 5 years old in Western Pa. than before. There are more clubs now — like Steel City Lacrosse Club, where she’s a coach and director — that will continue to develop better talent that feeds into local high schools.
“From a high school development perspective, you want to build a team culture that starts in the offseason,” Latona said. “The level of training opportunities has increased over the last few years.”
She added: “I think that’s honestly the reason why it’s grown in Pittsburgh, [it’s] because of the youth programs. … It’s also about creating a positive environment around the sport.”
More than club lacrosse is taking off. Travel baseball and softball has exploded with the likes of Perfect Game, a national baseball showcase organization, and elite fastpitch teams that travel the country. AAU basketball is also prominent.
Sroka, who coaches Butler High’s softball team, said when she was playing, she was required by her Pittsburgh Power Softball travel team to also play a certain number of games for her local recreation-league team to be eligible. Now, an increasing number of club teams gives more girls chances to compete in state, regional and national events, but it’s also creating a saturation point.
There aren’t enough quality pitchers for every travel team, and not every club may have qualified coaches or the proper resources or connections to help girls who are trying to become good enough to play in college, she said.
“(I’ve seen some) tryouts started two weeks ago for next year,” said Sroka, who isn’t coaching a club team this year for the first time in years. “Really the past five years, the amount of organizations popping up every spring, summer, it’s been exponential. ... Anybody can start an organization.”
But that comes at a cost. She said six or seven years ago it cost $700-800 to enter a showcase tournament. Now, many cost $1,100 or more, some up to $1,500, she said. That doesn’t take into account the cost of equipment, travel, lodging and food.
“I think it’s kind of a net positive/neutral for kids,” Sroka said of all the growth in travel softball.
“Overall, it’s great to see. In anything, growth is positive. It’s that piece of evaluation of are these numbers at where we need to be in this region (and then maintaining that and providing the best experience) ... so softball, regionally, stays competitive.”
