The Butler Eagle has spent the past week looking back 25 years at the Butler County area’s top athletes, coaches and teams, as well as some of the significant developments in the sports landscape in the area.

Now, let’s look ahead. What’s on the horizon between now and 2050? Which teams will win? How will high school sports continue to evolve? What impact will NIL and money in general continue to have? And will Pittsburgh get a women’s hockey team?

Here are one sports editor’s predictions for the next 25 years, including some insight from local coaches and athletic directors:

Related Article: 25 in 2025: Top athletes, coaches, teams and stories in Butler County sports since 2000

1. Butler drops to Class 5A: Butler Area School District’s enrollment has dropped steadily for several years, it’s something the district is well aware of. “We’ve had a steady decline at Butler in our enrollment,” athletic director Bill Mylan said. If it maintains a 2% decline for several more years, its high school male enrollment of 833, according to PIAA’s enrollment figures for the 2024-26 two-year cycle, will drop to 503 by 2050. PIAA’s current enrollment cutoffs for football are 424 to be in Class 5A and 620 in 6A, meaning if the PIAA simply kept that 6A number the same, Butler would fall to 5A around 2040. And that would likely be the same in basketball, softball and baseball, and the other six-classification sports.

2. Mars jumps to 6A: On the opposite end, Mars Area School District did a demographic study before the 2024-25 school year that projects nearly 4,000 students by 2030-31, up from 3,603 last year. It’s male enrollment K-12 is expected to climb 11.1% in that time. If that growth came true, the high school’s PIAA-approved male enrollment of 420 last year would jump to 467, and female enrollment from 408 to 453. Extend similar or slightly less growth through 2050, and the Planets will be competing against the WPIAL’s big dogs one day.

3. Union/A-C Valley fully merges in all sports: This has been trending this direction for a while. The two schools are in co-ops in nearly all sports except girls volleyball and boys basketball. The girls basketball teams combined in 2023. It seems likely the schools are fully combined in all sports in the near future.

4. Girls flag football takes off ...: The first PIAA girls flag season will be here in spring 2026. A handful of Butler County schools are expected to form teams — and Seneca Valley has had a club team for a few years. Raiders athletic director Heather Lewis called the sport a “sleeping giant” and predicts it will take off in popularity.

5. ... and boys flag football will follow: Lewis took it a step further and said she expects boys flag football to become a PIAA sport by 2050. Will it replace 11-on-11 football? No. But “one of the fears of football for parents is the contact element,” Lewis said, and the athleticism and excitement of flag football will attract more kids to football in a different form.

6. The clock is ticking on the shot clock: More states have adopted the shot clock in basketball. PIAA declined a vote on it this summer, but the momentum feels inevitable. Whenever the subject is brought up, PIAA social media buzzes for calls to “get with the times.” Not every coach is a fan of this, but more than 30 states have now adopted it.

Update: The PIAA advanced on a first reading a proposal to adopt a 35-second shot clock ahead of the 2028-29 season Wednesday, July 16, 2025. It needs to pass two more votes.

7. The 4-point shot will make its debut: This one comes courtesy of Butler girls basketball coach Mark Maier, who predicted the NBA, and by trickle-down college and then high school, will adopt a 4-point shot with “as good as people’s shooters are,” he said. Steph Curry walked so the first 4-point specialist could run.

8. PIAA tries to crack down on out-of-season competition: This prediction also comes from Maier, who believes the PIAA will one day limit how many open gyms, shootouts and other out-of-season competitions a basketball player in high school can participate in. “100 games a year is too much,” he said of some numbers he’s heard kids play in. Let’s take it a step further and say the PIAA won’t stop at basketball but will attempt to address other sports with booming club scenes like baseball, softball, volleyball and more. But that could have repercussions down the line (read more below).

9. Separate public/private championships arrive: It’s been the subject of legal action, and Pa. House Bill 41, which would give the PIAA the ability to separate “boundary” and “non-boundary” schools into their own state championships, passed out of committee in May. While the PIAA has been cautious about adopting separate state tournaments while other states have, it’s likely that eventually changes. Here’s predicting it’s in place by the end of the decade.

10. The rise of sports academies: A handful of people I talked to also are keeping an eye on a different kind of school: sports academies. IMG Academy in Florida is a national power that has produced numerous pros in major U.S. sports, and the evolving youth club scene and NIL landscape (more on that below) could see more academies pop up to entice the best would-be varsity athletes. Could some of Butler County’s potential Top 50 of 2050 athletes leave for these academies? It’s possible.

11. More athletes will opt out of varsity sports: Stressing local high schools in the other direction will be club and AAU teams restricting their top talent’s abilities to play prep sports. That’s happened with a handful of soccer players around the country. And Lewis and others are wary of a future when more athletes in other sports opt to play full-time with their travel teams rather than their high school as they chase higher quality competition, NIL opportunities and college scholarships.

“We often as athletic directors talk about what is our job in the next 10 to 15 years because of the proliferation of clubs?” Seneca Valley’s AD said. “The amount of money that’s being made by business owners is inconceivable. … Money’s going to drive everything.

12. And NIL opportunities will continue to grow: There’s no taking money away from college athletes now, and in some areas it has already seeped into high school athletics. Lewis predicts it will only become more common even in Butler County. It’ll take many shapes: the top recruits being paid to come to a Division I or II school, a local business offering money or perks to the local football star to be a spokesperson on an ad or social media. “It’s already at the high school level in small amounts, and I think you’ll see that increase dramatically,” Mylan said.

13. Rising travel costs come at a cost: Butler softball coach Kara Sroka voiced some concern about the continuous growth of travel teams in the area. There are not enough players to go around between recreation teams, travel teams and high schools. But the cost might be more of a concern. Sroka said about six years ago a showcase would cost $700-800, now they’re more like $1,100 and some are approaching $1,500. Rising costs to join a team, make practices and travel to tournaments will price out more families.

14. Does BC3 become a Pitt training ground?: Hear me out. Lewis dropped an intriguing idea that could see a variation of the old college model of varsity and JV teams, long since dormant. She can see a day when big power colleges partner with a neighboring junior college, dictate staffing and send their recruits who need to improve their academics or train more for the college game to them for one or two years of preparation for D-I competition. “If I’m (Pitt football coach Pat) Narduzzi or (Penn State football coach James) Franklin, I’m finding a junior college and I’m telling them who to hire as their staff, I’m building a relationship,” Lewis said. BC3’s women’s volleyball program has dominated the regional JUCO scene for a bit. Maybe Pitt’s nationally-ranked team teams up with the Pioneers as a feeder program.

15. Jordan Geist makes the 2028 Olympics: The former Knoch throwing standout has been a U.S. Olympic hopeful for several years, but his best chance will likely come ahead of the Los Angeles Games. Knoch talked about it on “Eye on Sports” and for our Top 25 male athletes of the last 25 years story. He believes he’ll be peaking as some of the country’s best right now hit their downswing. This is making it official: Geist will give Butler County an Olympian to root for on home turf in three years.

16. Butler’s Sloboda wins school’s first PIAA gold: Santino Sloboda has followed the script through three years: win WPIAL and PIAA medals his first three years, improving steadily each season; commit to a Division I program; approach program records. Now entering his senior season, Sloboda is set to become Butler’s best wrestler if he stays on track. And here’s predicting he’ll reach the summit and win the school’s first PIAA title after finishing third this year.

17. Butler football ends WPIAL playoff drought: All indications are the Tornado will return one day — probably soon — to the WPIAL after departing the league before the 2019 season. They played an independent schedule in 2024 and will again in 2025. But when Butler rejoins its longtime conference, it’ll have a lengthy playoff drought to end. Butler hasn’t made the WPIAL tournament since 2012, it’s only postseason appearance in the last 27 years. It may take a minute, but the Tornado will get back there in the next 25 years.

18. A half dozen WPIAL basketball titles: Slippery Rock baseball coach and Butler Radio host Tyler Friel’s bold prediction for the next 25 years is oddly specific: Butler County will produce exactly six WPIAL boys basketball champions. Let’s take it a step further and say Butler wins one of those, Mars wins three more, North Catholic wins two of them and the sixth goes to Knoch.

19. Drew Griffith’s 1,600 and 3,200 times won’t be touched: Specifically by a future Butler County athlete. The former Butler star, now at Notre Dame, holds the county and state record in the 1,600 with an astounding 3:57.08, nearly nine seconds faster than former teammate CJ Singleton’s previous record. And his 3,200 record of 8:37.08 is more than 20 seconds faster than Singleton. Maybe one day they fall somewhere in the state — maybe — but it’s hard to imagine those times being topped here anytime soon.

20. The same for Pam Gearing’s high jump record: It’s been 48 years since Slippery Rock’s Pam Gearing leaped in 5 feet, 10 inches in a single bound. Her high jump mark still stands the best in Butler County and hasn’t really been at risk of falling in some time. Butler’s Kendall Butch came closest in 2005 with a 5-8, but I’ll predict Gearing’s height still won’t be tied or eclipsed by any Butler County athlete through 2050.

21. SRU football makes a national championship game: The Rock have been to three NCAA Division II semifinals over the years, including last season and 2019. Head coach Shawn Lutz said he now believes it’s time for Slippery Rock to compete for national championships. This prediction isn’t to say if The Rock will win one, but they will finally make an appearance.

22. A Butler County football team makes the state final: In 37 years of PIAA football championships, no Butler County team has played for the trophy. North Catholic’s 2013 title came the year before it moved into the county. The closest any local team has come is Slippery Rock in 2003, when it made the semis. Most teams have never played in states. But sometime in the next 25 years, one of the area’s 11 football teams will make the trip.

23. Mars boys lacrosse’s WPIAL run hits a dozen: Not going out too far on a limb to say just how far the Planets’ gold streak in districts lasts, but let’s say it at least reaches 12. Why? Twelve happens to be one of my lucky numbers (so is five, but they’ve long since passed that number). Mars has dominated Western Pa. lacrosse for going on a decade. It lasts at least a few more years. Can it reach 2030?

24. A non-Cranberry-area soccer team wins states: Only three Butler County programs have won a PIAA soccer title: Mars’ girls team has done so four times, Seneca Valley’s boys team twice and Mars’ boys team once. The county’s southern edge is a soccer powerhouse. But this prediction has another team from farther north, or east, finally making it a Big Four. It’s too tough to say which one it’ll be, but it will happen.

25. Finally, some Pittsburgh predictions: The city will get a Professional Women’s Hockey League team by the end of this decade. And while there’s clambering for a WNBA team, I’m going a different route and saying the presence and early success of the Riveters and Riverhounds convinces the NWSL to approve a franchise in the next decade. Also, after Bob Nutting finally sells the Pirates in 2029, the franchise returns to its We Are Family glory and wins multiple World Series by 2050.