BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame continues to grow in quantity — and quality.

The organization’s 16th annual induction ceremony takes place at 6 p.m. Dec. 23 in the high school cafeteria. Former basketball standout Steve Adams, softball and basketball star Caitlin Baxter, retired cross country coach Rick Davanzati and basketball and baseball standout Bobby Swartwout are being inducted this year.

The inductees will also be presented at halftime of the Woodland Hills-Butler boys basketball game that night.

These inductions will swell the number of individuals in the Hall of Fame to 69.

Here is a look at the 2025 inductees:

A 1999 Butler graduate, Adams was a standout center on a Golden Tornado basketball team that came within a game of playing for the state championship. He scored more than 990 points in his high school career, but fell short of 1,000.

“I missed a couple of games with an ankle injury my senior year,” Adams said. “Otherwise, I would have gotten there. It was all about the team for us regardless. I wouldn’t trade my time on those teams for anything.”

Adams went on to become a team captain, leading Butler in scoring and rebounding his senior year. He was part of a starting lineup that featured eventual college basketball players Aaron Epps, Ralph Deabrunzzo, Jon Belowich and eventual Syracuse quarterback Troy Nunes.

“It’s pretty rare that five starters from a high school basketball team go on to play sports at the college level.,” Adams said. “We had great coaches, too, in George Abraham, (Jim) Duck Gallagher, Gene Rodgers, Joe Lewandowski ... That team just knew how to win.

“We played together and that made us successful.”

Adams went on to play sat Johns Hopkins University, where he made All-Middle Atlantic Region and was team captain for two years. He was inducted into the JHU Hall of Fame in 2015.

A special agent for the United States government the past 20 years, Adams now coaches his three daughters in basketball and lacrosse.

A 2013 Butler graduate, Baxter played softball, basketball and did track and field for three seasons. She missed her junior softball season because of a torn ACL, but ranked among the top three in the WPIAL in numerous categories at the time of her graduation.

She ranked first in runs scored and stolen bases, second in fielding, on base and slugging percentage, third in home runs and batting average. She was fourth in RBI.

“I do sometimes wonder where my total numbers would have wound up had I not gotten hurt,” Baxter admitted. “But injuries are a part of sports.”

Baxter went on to a stellar softball career at Slippery Rock University. She led the PSAC with a .949 fielding percentage at third base after playing shortstop in high school. During her senior season, Baxter led The Rock with a .348 batting average, 19 runs, four homers, 23 RBI, nine doubles and six stolen bases.

She was a PSAC Scholar-Athlete who went on to coach girls softball at Butler. Baxter is a science teacher at the Intermediate High School.

“I learned perseverance and time management through sports,” Baxter said. “Mental toughness, too. You can always do more in life.”

While teaching full-time, Baxter is raising her child and studying for her doctorate at SRU.

A 1974 Butler graduate, Davanzati was a stellar cross country and distance runner who went on to a legendary coaching career in the sport for the Golden Tornado.

Davanzati served as Butler cross country and distance running coach from 1980 until 2024, when he retired.

“Running is very special to me,” he said. “It changed my life. I went from being a shy little kid with a nasal tone to a person with confidence. It led me to my lifetime career because I wanted to help kids make similar transformations.”

Davanzati coached a PIAA champion, three state runner-ups, four WPIAL individual champions and three runner-ups (WPIAL achievements over a seven-year span) and coached numerous successful teams at the WPIAL and state level.

He sent more than 50 runners on to college cross country or track programs, including many to Division I power programs such as Syracuse, Tennessee and Notre Dame.

“Running takes such self-motivation and that spills over to academics,” Davanzati said. “The average grade point average for Butler Road Race scholarship winners over the years was 3.8.

“I have to thank all the athletes I coached, along with coaches like Chris Grooms, Mike Franko, Bill Lennox ... They all shaped who I am.”

A 2011 Butler graduate, Swartwout became an athletic force at a young age — hitting 50 home runs at age 12 during a Little League Home Run Derby held at Center Township.

“I still remember that well,” he said, laughing. “That was the first time I played in front of a lot of people as an athlete. I think I benefited from that down the road.”

Swartwout was such a basketball and baseball standout in high school that he played both sports in college,. He originally went to West Virginia Wesleyan for baseball, but transfered to Saint Vincent College, where he played basketball. Swartwout’s teams won league championships during both of his seasons, posting records of 14-2 and 15-3.

“Basketball was my first love and I really missed it,” he said. “Winning championships both years I was there ... That really worked out.”

Success was something Swartwout had grown accustomed to. He hit .321 and .308 his junior and senior baseball seasons at Butler, respectively, playing six different positions.

He scored more than 1,000 points as a four-year player in basketball and ranked sixth on the Tornado’s all-time scoring list when he graduated. Butler had not won a playoff game in 10 years until Swartwout’s senior year. The Tornado won five postseason games that season, including a 50-47 overtime upset of Shaler, which was ranked first in the state that year.

Swartwout had 18 points and 13 rebounds in that game, sank two free throws late in overtime and stole a pass in the waning seconds to seal the win.

“We only won a few games my freshman year,” He recalled. “Our teanm got better and better wach year. It is pretty cool, feeling like our team was the one that brought Butler basketball back.

“I learened all about what teamwork and friendship can do back then. I learned how to adjust to different situations. What I learned through sports has made me a better co-worker, husband and hopefully father, as our first child is on the way. I’m very thankful for that.”