For the second year in a row, Butler Athletic Director Todd Carter has been presented with the Bryce Roderick Award of Excellence, presented annually to the top athletic director in NJCAA Region VI.
Region VI encompasses all two-year college athletic programs in Kansas under the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The award is based on overall athletic success of teams in each college's overall program.
Carter becomes not only the first athletic director to win the award more than once, but Butler is also the first school to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons.
"It is quite an honor to win this award, especially for a second year in a row," Carter said. "This is a true team effort. This wouldn't have happened without the hard work of Associate Athletic Director Matt Jacobs, our support staff, our coaches and our student-athletes."
It's the cap of another overall season of success for Butler.
In track and field, sophomore Andre Ewers (100 meter dash) and Tyson Penn (high jump) won individual national titles, while in soccer, Butler was in the national tournament for the sixth straight season and had the highest grade point average of any team in the Jayhawk Conference.
Off the field, softball standout Brynn Minor was the national Player of the Year and also earned the NJCAA's Betty Jo Graber Award as top overall female athlete in the country, regardless of sport. Regan Mergele was the national Pitcher of the Year.
In addition, Butler also finished seventh nationally in the NATYCAA Cup standings, which is a point-based system that awards athletic departments on how well their teams did in each sport of the course of a given school year.
Also, Butler had the second-highest number of NJCAA All-Academic award winners in the country, trailing only Iowa Western.
Previous Award Winners:
2006-2007 – Vic Trilli, Garden City
2007-2008 – Greg Delzeit, Highland
2008-2009 – Tom Saia, Cowley
2009-2010 – Randy Stange, Hutchinson
2010-2011 – Galen McSpadden, Seward
2011-2012 – Kurt McAfee, Pratt
2012-2013 – Amber Burdge, Neosho
2013-2014 – Matt Bechard, Cloud
2014-2015 – Jeff Leiker, Coffeyville
2015-2016 – Todd Carter, Butler
2016-2017 – Todd Carter, Butler