Entering my 25th year of covering Butler High School sports, I have seen dozens of stellar athletes come and go here.

Every now and then, my mind finds itself reflecting on memories about many of them.

So why not try to come up with my own Mount Rushmore of Golden Tornado athletes I’ve seen compete during my years at the Eagle?

Keep in mind, these choices were arrived at through a very unscientific process. Trying to narrow down my list to the top four male and female athletes I’ve seen at Butler since 1997 wasn’t easy.

A lot of stellar names — John Aubrey, Connor Ollio, Cody Herald, Logan Renwick, Annie Lowry, Amy Achesinski, Kim Nowakowski, Noah Beveridge, Laura Goettler and Calvin Littlejohn, to name a few — were left off.

But here is my Mount Rushmore of Butler male athletes during my time here: Ethan Morton, Tyrell Sales, Troy Nunes and Nate Snodgrass.

The first three are no-brainers to me.

Morton is the best high school basketball player I’ve ever seen — and I’ve seen plenty of great ones. Morton, of course, is now a freshman at Purdue.

Sales and Nunes were standout three-sport athletes. Sales started at linebacker for Penn Sate for three years, was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball and was a standout thrower on the track team.

Nunes went on to start at quarterback for Syracuse, started on one of George Abraham’s best basketball teams at Butler, ran track and was an excellent golfer.

My fourth choice could have gone in multiple directions. I went with Snodgrass because of his incredible senior year in basketball. He had a run of heroic moments in the playoffs that year I’ll never forget.

Snodgrass went on to a solid hoop career at Pitt-Johnstown.

My Mount Rushmore of Butler female athletes since 1997: Olivia Bresnahan, Meghan Schnur, Annessa Schnur and Liz Simms.

Bresnahan could do it all on the basketball court for the Tornado — score, drive, post up, rebound, pile up assists, you name it. She went on to play at Florida State and Duquesne.

Meghan Schnur was one of the best soccer players to come out of this region. She not only led Butler to the state finals, she shined at the University of Connecticut, played on national teams and professional women’s soccer.

Annessa Schnur was a three-sport athlete who did everything a human being could do in track and field. She went on to the University of Michigan and competed in multiple events there.

Simms was a soccer and standout track runner at Butler. Now competing at Davidson, she holds Butler County’s fastest recorded time in the 800 meters. She also ran a leg on the county’s fastest 1,600- and 3,200-meter relay teams.

To me, these eight names represent the best of the best at Butler during my day.

But they had plenty of competition.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle