Retirement nears for longtime athletics administrator Butler
Butler, after a career spanning three decades, looks forward to his retirement
A“sissy” sport.
That’s how Joe Butler saw others describe tennis when he started playing it as a 9-year-old in 1961 when he was new to Santa Fe. Butler saw himself as a baseball player, but tennis found a place in his heart. Just not when he was a teenager.
Back then, the only color tennis players at St. Michael’s wore was white, and Butler gingerly walked his way toward Salvador Perez Park, preparing for the worst from his teammates until he chose to focus on baseball when he was 14.
“In those days, playing tennis was a ‘sissy’ sport — that was the word that was thrown out — and I didn’t want to go,” Butler said. “All my baseball buddies gave me a hard time. In fact, in order for me to get to the tennis courts, I had to walk by [current St. Michael’s AD] Tom Manning’s house, and Bob Martinez and those guys. I used to walk or ride my bike every day with my racket, and Tom would be out in his yard, calling me a ‘sissy’ as I was going to the courts.”
Fast-forward 50-plus years, and Butler is still wearing white, although it’s only his hat, as he prepares for his final days as an athletics administrator. Wouldn’t you know it, the former St. Michael’s and Santa Fe High athletic director is ending his career at the Jerry Cline Tennis Complex as the coordinator of the State Tennis Championships that began Wednesday. Butler has been the state tennis coordinator for the past four years, part of his job as the assistant director of sports for the New Mexico Activities Association.
Butler, 66, is retiring once the school year ends, ending a 32-year career as an AD, head coach and NMAA administrator, and the four days of the State Tennis Championships are his final events he will oversee for the NMAA. So, Butler and his volunteers will check players in for their matches, get the tennis courts ready for competition, update the brackets for the individual and team competitions and handle whatever emergencies or issues that arise during the tournament.
After that, though, Butler will quietly slide into retirement, which means Sunday doubles matches with Capital assistant coach Bruce Cottrell, Taos head coach Kurt Edelbrock and Santa Fe Prep head coach Ralph Bolton, and a lot of down time for Butler.
“For the first six months, I’m gonna wake up every morning and decide what I’m gonna do,” Butler said. “My whole life has been structured. I just want some unstructured time, and then, we’ll see.”
Chances are Butler will find his way onto the tennis court as a coach, because he can’t seem to get away from it. Even though Butler wasn’t enamored with the sport, he said he was good enough to be the top ranked player in the Southwest region by the time he was 12. He played the sport recreationally after
that, but not on a consistent enough basis until he returned to Santa Fe in the mid-1970s.
Then, Butler got involved — heavily. He helped form the Santa Fe Tennis Club, a group of players who competed on the city’s public courts that grew to as many as 250 members. It lit a competitive fire for Butler that led him to get involved in high school athletics, starting off as the AD at St. Michael’s from 1986-2001. He also coached boys and girls tennis during that time, as well as a one-year stint in 2004-05 that saw him coach his daughter, Jessica Butler, to a Class 1A-3A doubles title with Erika Sommer.
Tennis can take some of the credit for that.
“I’ve never stopped playing it,” Butler said. “I don’t get involved in the leagues or the tournaments anymore. I do it recreationally. … Tennis for me, is just Bruce, and Kurt and Ralph Bolton. We’ve been together for 30-plus years just playing on Sundays. It’s some high-level tennis doubles, but it’s been a friendship type thing.”
Cottrell, though, said discussion has overtaken the competition part of their playing.
“We both need exercise at our age — well, at least I do,” Cottrell said. “A lot of times we just hit. Chela [Butler, Joe’s wife], says we don’t really play, we just talk. So, she always accuses us of not really playing.”
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Butler’s retirement might end up being Capital High School. Butler alluded to a discussion with Cottrell that he might join the coaching staff at Capital once he’s done, and Cottrell hopes that it will come to fruition.
“I really like Joe, as a friend and as a player,” Cottrell said. “I would love to have him there [at Capital]. Seriously, I am trying to grow that program, and I would be thrilled if he would join me and [head coach Patrick Tolan].”
Butler sees the potential of expanding tennis’ influence on the south side, especially when he sees the courts at Capital.
“I am intrigued by that side of town in Santa Fe,” Butler said. “They have one nicest highschool facilities in the state. And tennis is one of those sports, for an area of town like that, where you have parents that are looking for something for kids to do over the summer, it’s not expensive. You just need a pair of tennis shoes and a racket and that’s it.
“I could see, going forward, doing some kind of a program on the west side of Santa Fe to get kids interested in the sport of tennis, utilizing that facility over there.”
FIRST-DAY ACTION
Speaking of Capital, Ishara Sorensen’s stay in the 5A bracket ended in the first round, as Alamogordo’s Melanie Jun dispatched her 6-2, 6-0.
Class 1A-4A saw the top four seeds on the girls side advance to the semifinals. Top-seeded Brandelyn Fulgenzi of Las Vegas Robertson beat Moriarty’s Jessica Kaberlein 6-0, 6-0 and will face No. 4 Amanda Martin of Bernalillo at 11 a.m. Thursday. Haley Garcia of St. Michael’s, the second seed, will take on Portales’ Sarah Blaeser after beating Robertson’s Cailyn Marrujo, 6-2, 6-2.
Robertson’s Andres Garcia, the second seed in the 1A-4A bracket, handled Silver’s Lazius Brown, 6-0, 6-0, to advance to the semifinals. He will face either teammate Dylan Moore or No. 3 Neil Katzman of Bosque School, which had not finished as of press time.
District 2/3-1A-4A dominated the girls doubles bracket, as half of the quarterfinal bracket belongs to it. Robertson is guaranteed a semifinal spot, as the team of Mickey Sena and Carli Marrujo takes on top seeded Jenese and Lauren Fulgenzi in an 8 a.m. quarterfinal. Sena/Marrujo downed Moriarty’s Vanessa Vincentillo and Shannon Moritomo, 7-5, 6-0.
The St. Michael’s team of Cameron Calabrese and Kyra Chavez advanced to a matchup with No. 3 Kilah Baca and Chloe Lamb of Albuquerque Bosque School after beating Portales’ team of Kelly Fraze and Kinsey Bilberry 6-4, 6-3. The Santa Fe Prep duo of Isabel Voinescu and Grace Vivian downed Bosque’s Jenna Simon and Greer Hobbs, 6-2, 6-0. The Blue Griffins duo takes on Jordan Franzoy and Jaiden Coyle of Mesilla Valley, the second seed, in the quarterfinals.
The boys side saw Taos get its doubles teams of Yisidro Grevelle/Robert Wooldridge and Joe Colonius/Victor Burns Diaz reach the quarterfinals. Team Colonius/ Burns beat Portales’ Javier Gutierrez and Gerardo Calderon, 6-1, 6-1, while Grevelle and Woolridge beat Finn Hautau and Robert Hanisee of Bosque School 6-0, 6-0.
In 5A boys, Los Alamos had both of its teams advance past the first round. The second-seeded duo of Thomas Chadwich and Martin Naud breezed past Roswell Goddard’s Leo Melendez and Jackson Hicks, 6-0, 6-0. Meanwhile, Junseo Kim and Tim Martin beat Lovington’s Si Teel and David Corrales, 6-3, 6-1. On the girls side, McKenzie Cook and Alina Bulthuis of Los Alamos beat Cammie Wallace and Hailey Moehlmann of Alamogordo, 6-0, 6-0.