Vote for your Butler Eagle Female Athlete of the Year: Meet the 5 nominees for 2025-26
The Butler Eagle has celebrated its top male and female athletes of the school year each of the past two summers.
This time, we are announcing our nominees for the honors and letting readers and fans vote for who they think is the best of the best in Butler County high school athletics. The female 2025-26 AOTY nominees are out now, with the male nominees released Monday. Fans will have a week to vote in the polls at the end of the nomination lists. We’ll announce the fan-vote winners after polls close.
In July, the Eagle sports staff will unveil its Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
Meet the Butler Eagle Female Athlete of the Year nominees:
Sports: girls soccer, track
Brandon looks like the face of next year’s senior class that could win their own four straight District 9 Class 1A girls soccer titles (and sixth in a row for the program) after she scored 20 goals, including one in the D9 championship victory, and had a county-leading 28 assists in the fall. That effort, a dramatic step up from her sophomore season, earned the forward Butler Eagle all-county first team honors. Brandon then followed up a sophomore track season that saw her win two D9 medals with golds in the 100-meter dash (12.55-second PR) and the 4x100 relay (51.14) in this year’s district meet. She also added silver in the long jump (16-8.75) and fourth in the high jump (4-10), earning D9 MVP honors, and qualified for states in the 100, 4x1 and long jump.
Sport: girls lacrosse
The Butler Eagle Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year candidate was front and center during the Planets’ overwhelming run to a fourth straight WPIAL Class 2A title and another appearance in the PIAA tournament quarterfinals. One of the top recruits in the nation in the Class of 2026, McGrath will head to Notre Dame next after she produced 57 goals, 37 assists and 94 points from her midfield spot this season, finishing with 158 goals, 99 assists and 257 points for her career. A two-year captain, McGrath also earned multiple WPIAL honors and was a 2025 Academic All-American, according to head coach Abby Latona.
Sport: girls basketball
Romanovich has been the centerpiece of the Rockets’ incredible rebuild, leading the team to consecutive PIAA Class 4A tournament appearances and its first District 10 championship game appearance since 2022. This season, she earned Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Player of the Year honors after averaging 22.4 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game at guard while clearing 1,000 career points. Her scoring and assist numbers were among the best in Butler County, and head coach Jeff Steele viewed her as the model for how the program can develop youth basketball players into future stars in the coming years. She’ll play collegiately at John Carroll next year.
Sports: girls soccer, flag football
Sharpless has been a star forward and midfielder on the soccer pitch for a while, earning the Butler Eagle Girls Soccer Player of the Year in 2024 and a first-team honor in 2025. She scored more than 100 career goals, including 29 with 15 assists in her senior year, and guided the Trojanettes to the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals. She’s committed to Division I Western Michigan, where she’ll study aviation flight science, as well. And with flag football now a sanctioned sport, Sharpless is likely to be named to the inaugural Butler Eagle all-county first team this season after she led the team in rushing yards and touchdowns (11), plus three receiving TDs and four defensive interceptions. She was also named a Jerome Bettis Leadership Award winner during the season and was honored on the NFL draft stage, in Pittsburgh, when the Steelers made their first-round pick.
Sports: girls volleyball, girls basketball
Venesky closed out a storied career that saw her win four straight District 9 girls basketball titles. She was known most for her basketball prowess, where the shooting guard earned KSAC MVP honors while averaging 16.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.8 assists. In 107 career games, she finished with 1,109 points, 223 steals and 163 assists.. Venesky was named a Butler Eagle girls basketball all-county first-teamer. The senior was also a District 9 Class 2A volleyball all-star at middle back in the fall.
Cast your vote below by 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 23. If the poll doesn’t appear, click this link to vote.
