2020 Hall of Fame Inductees

Hal Koenemund - Athlete

One season. Two records. Three all-star squads.

Hal Koenemund’s men’s basketball career at Butler County Community College was succinct, at 28 games, but successful, with scoring records of 55 points in a game and of 918 in a season for 1993-94. 

Honors poured in for the 6-foot-3 shooting guard, just like the baskets he poured in for the Pioneers:

A first-team all-star in the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference, Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III Region XX. Recognition as the No. 1 scorer in the NJCAA’s Division III. Becoming BC3’s first NJCAA men’s basketball All-American. Koenemund’s last-second shot in a season-opening tournament helped the Pioneers to beat Cuyahoga Community College and center Ben Wallace, chosen 11 years later as an NBA all-star with the Detroit Pistons.

His heroics, rewarded with tournament MVP honors, signaled stardom to come at BC3. Against Niagara Community College, he broke Darren Callihan’s five-year-old BC3 record of 54 points in a game. Against Penn State-New Kensington, he helped to lead BC3 to the WPCC title -- and an appearance in the PCAA championship against the Community College of Philadelphia. He had 28 points in a 95-74 loss for BC3, which ended 15-13.

He transferred from BC3 to Robert Morris University, where he played in 27 games for the Colonials.

Koenemund started for a Blackhawk High School boys team that in 1992 finished 32-1, as the state Class AAA champion and that as a team was inducted in 2016 into the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Hall of Fame.

Tracy Pease - Athlete 

Tracy Pease made hers a legendary name at Butler County Community College by ruling the court in two different sports.

The Pioneers’ 1985 state champion in women’s singles tennis was also a shooting guard talented enough to be selected to the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference all-conference squad in women’s basketball in the same year.

Two springs after she graduated from Butler Area Senior High School and as a three-sport star, Pease found herself in State College on a May weekend in 1985 -- 78 feet away from opponent Sue Reese and a Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association state singles title for BC3.

Reese, of Westmoreland County Community College, had beaten Pease in their previous meeting – in the WPCC championship. But Pease won the first match in State College against Reese 6-3, and in exhibiting the consistency she displayed in her two-sport BC3 career, won the second match 6-3.

Pease placed second in the Skyline Athletic Conference’s women’s singles tennis tournament in 1984 and was named to the SAC’s all-conference squad. The next year she was selected to the WPCC’s all-conference team in tennis and in women’s basketball, a sport in which she averaged nearly 9 points per game.

As a Pioneer, her studies of the game were exceeded only by her studies in the classroom. Pease was selected to the WPCC’s all-academic team in 1985 and earned 4.0-grade point averages in two semesters.

Pease graduated with magna cum laude honors from BC3 and with two associate degrees. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Robert Morris University, where she was a three-sport star.

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(Published May 2020)