Butler Area School District student athletes are enjoying some big improvements recently made at the district’s athletic facilities.
Athletic Director Bill Mylan showcased the new flooring and brand-new lockers in the varsity football locker rooms on Wednesday.
“We used to have old, wooden lockers. These are much nicer,” Mylan said. “It’s nice to have nice things for our student athletes.”
The new upgrades to both the varsity and visiting locker rooms at Art Bernardi Stadium were financed through a $90,000 donation made by the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation. The foundation raises money for scholarships and projects like this, through fundraisers like the Tuff Tornado Run coming up in October.
Other projects completed this summer to improve the district’s athletic facilities include new padding and paint at the Butler Senior High School gym, drainage work at the high school baseball field, and new turf at the football field.
“We made the end-zones navy with gold lettering- it really pops now,” Mylan said. “In the middle of the field we had a white tornado. I’m not sure how that came to be since we’re the Butler Golden Tornado. We changed the color to gold.”
Mylan believes the district will be able to receive some income from renting these facilities to groups looking for athletic space. Butler’s athletic activity fee continues to be used for purchasing necessary equipment. Mylan would like to see another turf field added, possibly at the Butler Intermediate School to lessen scheduling conflicts.
