(Butler, PA) His fall 2026 Butler County Community College golf team could be the least experienced in his previous 23 seasons, but head coach Bill Miller will have for the first time since 2018 an assistant — the 60-year-old program’s most decorated alumnus — to help develop the Pioneers toward a 15th Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship.
Troy Loughry, 26, of Butler, is the program’s only player to earn first-team National Junior College Athletic Association Division III All-American status twice.
Loughry also won WPCC individual titles in 2021 and 2022 and NJCAA Division III Region 20 individual crowns in 2022 and 2023. He became an assistant to Miller, the eight-time WPCC coach of the year, in August when he was hired as BC3’s coordinator of athletics events.
“Troy,” Miller said, “has an excellent resume. No question. I think he will be able to relate well to the players. He’s not that much older than they are. He can say, ‘I played at this course. Here’s what I did on that hole.’ He can relate his own experience to them, and it will only help.
“We’ll have two coaches out there now. If I am not on a hole with a certain individual, then maybe he will be.”
Loughry said he will be able to relate to BC3 golfers “in more of a player setting.”
“I can give them stories and strategies,” Loughry said. “Golf is such an in-the-zone, in-the-moment sport with the decisions that you make on the course. With what I know about the courses that we are going to play, I can give them real-time advice about things like, ‘Hey, this is the decision to make.’”
Butler County Community College golf head coach Bill Miller, left, and BC3 golfer Troy Loughry are shown Friday, June 10, 2022, during the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship tournament in Chautauqua, N.Y. Loughry, who ended the 2022 tournament with his first of two first-team All-American awards, has become Miller’s assistant coach.
Miller’s most recent assistant was Chuck Dunaway, at the time the college’s retired athletics director and who helped to found BC3 athletics programs in the late 1960s.
The Pioneers open their fall 2026 season against Pennsylvania Highlands Community College (Johnstown); Westmoreland County Community College (Youngwood); and the Community College of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) at 10 a.m. Friday at North Park Golf Course, Wexford.
Members of Butler County Community College’s fall 2026 men’s and women’s golf teams are, top row, from left, Brett Bartholow, Carter Blystone, Gannon Brown, Ryan Conaway and Jake Dimun. Bottom row, from left, Leah McClellan, Johnnie Mikos, Maddox Shaffer, Colt Sprankle, assistant coach Troy Loughry and head coach Bill Miller.
BC3’s men’s team returns Gannon Brown and Maddox Shaffer, and the women’s team, Leah McClellan.
Brown competed in two matches as a member of BC3’s fall 2025 squad and in one as a member of the college’s spring 2026 team and averaged an 84.3.
Shaffer played in three matches in the spring and averaged an 84.7.
McClellan competed in nine matches in the fall and spring and averaged a 114.3. McClellan also finished 30th in the open NJCAA Division III national championship tournament in Chautauqua, N.Y., in June with a four-round 487.
McClellan said she noticed her drives began to improve during the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament
“My shots have been longer and straighter, and I am working on my slice,” McClellan said, adding that putting is currently the strongest part of her game.
“I feel as if I am able to read greens decently,” McClellan said.
Brown said he has recently begun to swing more easily on his tee shots “and keeping it in the fairway instead of concentrating on how far I can hit the ball. Being in the fairway for a second shot is crucial to me because I have a better chance of greening it, even if that means it’s a farther shot.”
His putting has improved the most since last season, Shaffer said, “because of time and practice on the green. My short game will help the team because you can gain or lose a lot of strokes on the green. Having a strong short game allows me to save strokes and give myself more opportunities to score.”
Brown, Shaffer and McClellan will be joined on BC3’s roster by first-year players Brett Bartholow, Carter Blystone, Ryan Conaway, Jacob Dimun, Johnnie Mikos and Colt Sprankle – and mentored by Miller, the eight-time WPCC coach of the year, and Loughry.
Brown, McClellan, Blystone, Conaway and Dimun are graduates of Butler Senior High. Brown and Blystone are enrolled in BC3’s business administration program; McClellan and Dimun in general studies; and Conaway in engineering.
Shaffer is a graduate of Armstrong High and enrolled in BC3’s registered nursing program; Bartholow, Connellsville Area, biological science; Mikos, Cardinal Mooney, Youngstown, business administration; and Sprankle, Knoch, business administration.
The Pioneers’ fall golf season concludes with the WPCC championship tournament. BC3’s spring season features regional play, regional tournaments and possible national championship appearances where golfers compete for All-American status.
The 36-hole WPCC championship tournament is scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 at Willowbrook Country Club in Apollo.