BUTLER TWP — Everything happens for a reason?

Shauna Troup believes it.

An assistant softball coach at Butler last year, she applied for the vacant head coaching position at Grove City in the offseason and didn’t get offered the job.

“I was disappointed, sure,” Troup said. “I was hoping to get in there as a teacher, too, but it didn’t happen.”

Last month, Butler coach Dan Hindman resigned suddenly to accept the Slippery Rock High School softball job and Troup was named interim coach at Butler. She will likely be officially hired as coach at Monday night’s school board meeting.

“The whole thing happened so fast,” Troup said. “I was named coach on a Friday and we had tryouts the following Monday. It was a quick turnover.

“I had been running practice for a couple of weeks, anyway, so we just kept on going.”

Hindman was 21-32 in three years as Butler coach. Troup got a position on his staff after learning of an opening through former college teammate Whitney Warmus. Both played for Slippery Rock University and Warmus was already one of Hindman’s assistants.

Troup has also been substitute teaching at Butler.

“It’s funny how things work out,” she said. “I was hoping to coach and teach at Grove City. Now, maybe I’ll get to do both at Butler. That’s the ultimate goal, anyway.”

A 2011 SRU graduate, Troup has a degree in health and physical education. She ranks among the top 10 in program history in numerous pitching categories.

Her 30 wins rank second all-time at The Rock. Her 199 strikeouts rank third and her 341.1 innings pitched rank fifth.

“She knows a lot about pitching and she’s really had an impact on our pitchers here,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. “Shauna knows the game inside and out. She’s very enthusiastic about working with the girls.”

A Kittanning resident and Elderton High School graduate, Troup didn’t begin her own pitching career until she was 14. She played for a travel team in Cranberry Township and traveled to Deer Lakes to play summer ball.

“There was nothing available to me in terms of fastpitch softball where I lived,” she recalled. “That’s why I work with my dad now running a travel softball organization and I put on clinics.

“I wish that sort of thing was there for me when I was younger and I want to make sure girls growing up today can get that type of instruction.”

Troup is inheriting a Butler High program that only has 14 girls. The Golden Tornado could not field a junior varsity team last year.

This season, Troup is working on scheduling JV games immediately after the varsity games’ conclusion.

“That way, all of our girls will get plenty of playing time and develop,” she said.

Emily McDonald, a junior, is already a two-year starter on the mound for the Tornado. Alexis Schmeider is another returning pitcher.

“We only have two seniors, yet we have some experience,” Troup said. “The continuity is going to be there over the next couple of years.

“Tina O’Donnell is in her third year as junior high coach and we’re getting girls interested. We have a lot of room to grow here and I’m hoping to be here for a long time.”