(Butler, PA) All-American Taylor Voloch, and Mitchell Covert, Jaxon Salata and Parker Worsley return to a spring Butler County Community College golf team that seeks to defend its 2025 regional title and its automatic berth to the national championship tournament.
The Pioneers open their spring season at 10 a.m. April 10 against the Community College of Allegheny County, and Pennsylvania Highlands and Westmoreland County community colleges at North Park Golf Course in Allison Park.
BC3 in May advanced to 8-0 by capturing its seventh National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 crown and qualified for the national championship tournament in Chautauqua, N.Y., where All-American awards are presented to the Top 18 men and Top 18 women with the lowest scores after four rounds.
“We’re going to be right in the mix,” BC3 golf coach Bill Miller said. “With the sophomores, having gone to a weeklong tournament at the national level kind of opens up their eyes to see what they are capable of and what can be done. And I think it gives them an incentive to go back.”
Voloch, the fourth woman to play for BC3 in Miller’s 23 years, was also the first to compete in the 4-year-old women’s national championship tournament. She placed 14th with a 474 and became the college’s first women’s All-American in golf.
The Pioneers’ spring season features regional matches, the regional tournament and a chance to advance to nationals in New York. BC3’s fall season includes conference matches and concludes with the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship tournament.
Members of Butler County Community College’s spring 2026 men’s golf team are, top row from left, Gannon Brown, Mitchell Covert, Mason Phillips, Jaxon Salata and Jeremy Scheidt. Second row, from left, Maddox Shaffer, Bodie Spohn and Parker Worsley. Women’s players are Leah McClellan and Taylor Voloch.
Covert has competed in the most BC3 matches among returning players and, Miller said, will likely be the Pioneers’ No. 1 golfer.
“Mitch is really consistent and doesn’t seem to let a bad shot or a bad score on a hole ruin his day,” Miller said. “He is going to give you a pretty strong effort each time.”
The graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City in 24 matches has averaged 79.1 and leads returning Pioneers with three medalist honors. Covert is a two-time WPCC all-conference and WPCC all-tournament selection and was picked to the NJCAA Division III All-Region 20 squad last spring.
Worsley, Miller said, is a “scrambler,” has averaged 81.3 in 23 matches at BC3 and was twice named to the WPCC all-tournament team.
“He can spray the ball a little bit off the tee,” Miller said. “I have seen him come out of some shots where it’s uncanny.”
Salata, like Worsley a graduate of Butler Senior High, has averaged an 81.5 in 22 matches at BC3 and has been chosen to the WPCC all-tournament team and to the NJCAA Division III All-Region 20 squad.
“A great attitude,” Miller said of Salata. “Jaxon is very reliable and he’s very positive. Sometimes he will say, ‘I did not have a great hole or a great shot,’ then he keeps on grinding.
Voloch, a Moniteau High graduate, has averaged a 112.3 in 19 matches as a Pioneer.
“Taylor,” Miller said, “has been through this for three seasons. She has performed really, really well and has exceeded expectations.”
Joining the sophomores will be Gannon Brown, Mason Phillips, Jeremy Scheidt, Bodie Spohn and Leah McClellan, freshmen who competed in BC3’s fall 2025 season, and newcomer Maddox Shaffer. Brown, Spohn and McClellan are graduates of Butler; Phillips and Scheidt, of Knoch; and Shaffer, of Armstrong.
Brown, Covert, Phillips and Salata are business administration students at BC3; Scheidt and Worsley, business management; Shaffer, health care science; Spohn, biological science; McClellan, general studies; and Voloch, psychology.
BC3’s men’s squad in June matched its best total in seven national championship tournament appearances with a 1,265 and tied for seventh place with Rowan College of South Jersey.
The Pioneers’ Jacob Marquardt fired a 292 at Chautauqua in June, finished seventh at 14 strokes back and was named an All-American. Worsley had a 336 and tied for 50th place with Billy Sobieski, Community College of Morris in Randolph, N.J. Covert ended with a 340 and tied for 53rd with Aiden Duffy, Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood; and Salata had a 343 and placed 56th.
Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., won its fifth consecutive team title at the national championship tournament with an 1,136 and its fourth individual title in a row behind Vegas Melen, who shot a 10-under 278.
BC3 golfers have received nine All-American awards since 1996.
Marquardt and Voloch are also BC3’s second set of All-Americans in golf in the same year, joining Thomas Dimun and Stefan Carlsson in 2015.
BC3 student-athletes have won 42 All-American awards since 1970.