Principal/mom links three generations of football for Falcons

Shannon Butler is a bridge between the two greatest moments in York High School football history, huge upsets more than 30 years apart.

One is the Falcons’ 32-24 win over nationally ranked Tabb in the 1988 Group AA Region I championship game. Butler was 10 and her father, Bob Schmidt, was the coach as York upended a seemingly unbeatable team led by future NFL starters Terry Kirby and Chris Slade.

The other is the Falcons’ 28-21 win over Lafayette last season. Her son, Kase Butler, was sidelined for the only time in his high school career by an injury, but the Falcons nevertheless ended the Rams’ streaks of 60 Bay Rivers District wins and seven district titles.

“It was that same feeling of excitement,” Shannon Butler, York High’s principal, said in comparing the two games. “You had that feeling that something big was going to happen.”

Another emotional moment awaits Shannon Butler and her dad when York (1-2) hosts Lafayette (4-0) on Friday at Bailey Field — site of the aforementioned upsets. Kase Butler, a senior who starts at wide receiver and linebacker, could be playing his final high school game unless York can schedule an extra game allowed because COVID shortened this season.

“I try not to think about him not playing,” said Schmidt, who went on to coach Denbigh and Woodside following his eight-season stint as York’s coach in the 1980s.

“I love watching Kase play and could watch him every day of the week.”

Kase Butler and his grandfather have a special relationship when it comes to football. Shannon Butler says they often engage in long conversations about the sport between themselves and others enjoy just listening.

“The York High football tradition has been passed down from him to her to me, and it’s been my goal to play for the Falcons since first grade,” Kase Butler said. “My grandfather has taught me everything about football, really.

“Whatever the position I’ve played, he’s given me insight into it.”

Kase Butler played for the first time on Bailey Field as a fifth grader for the winning York-Seaford Bulldogs in the Peninsula Youth Football Association Super Bowl. The large community showing at the game reminded Shannon Butler of the support her dad’s York High teams got during the 1980s.

It conjured memories of donning royal blue York football shirts as a little girl before dad’s games, stopping at Pop’s Drive In on the way to Bailey Field to eat Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. None is etched more deeply than the ‘88 win over the Tabb Tigers, the plane circling the field with a “Go York, Beat Tabb!” banner and thousands of fans in