Butler basketball stars honored at Greater Wichita Sports Banquet

Butler Community College left the 28th annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet with a clean snapshot of why 2025-26 became such a landmark basketball year. At INTRUST Bank Arena on Thursday night, Mike Helmer received the Special Excellence in Sports Award, Tristan Hankins was named Junior College Male Athlete of the Year and Mya Mayberry was a finalist for the Junior College Female Athlete of the Year award.

Helmer’s recognition fit the season he finished in his 18th and final year leading Butler women’s basketball while also serving as athletic director. His team went 32-2 overall and 23-1 in conference play, won the NJCAA Region 6 title and earned the program’s first-ever No. 1 overall seed in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball National Tournament. Butler’s 57-47 win over Hutchinson in Great Bend on March 16 gave the Grizzlies the Region 6 crown for the third time under Helmer and first since 2020, and the national-tournament bid was the program’s first since the 2020-21 season.

Helmer’s career ended with 414 wins and 157 losses, the best mark in Butler women’s history. The banquet honor capped a stretch in which his teams kept getting deeper into March and kept putting Butler on the national map. By the end of the spring, the program had the résumé to back it up: the top seed, the conference dominance and a return to the tournament field that signaled the roster had the right mix of size, guard play and experience to handle pressure.

Hankins brought that same evidence on the men’s side. The freshman scored 18.5 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting and added 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest, production that earned him KJCCC Co-Player of the Year, KJCCC Freshman of the Year and First Team NJCAA All-American honors. He also helped Butler reach the NJCAA Elite Eight, the program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 1996, before signing with UT Arlington for the 2026-27 season.

Mayberry’s numbers were different, but the impact was just as clear. She averaged 10.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals per game, earned NJCAA Second Team All-American honors and became the ninth All-American coached by Helmer. The guard will continue her career at North Florida, and her place on the banquet stage reinforced how Butler’s best teams have been built around players who produce in every phase, not just one box score line.