Butler steps down as Monte del Sol coach
Winningest volleyball coach in Santa Fe hands over reins to her daughter
Some people prefer to take retirement and fade off into the sunset.
Chela Butler is taking the less dramatic approach and doing more of a soft shu±e off to the side.
The winningest high school volleyball coach in Santa Fe history said Thursday that she has retired from her post at Monte del Sol to focus her time on teaching math and keeping an eye on her grandchildren.
She’ll also maintain a role in the Dragons program, spending a handful of nights volunteering and helping out when she’s needed. She has good reasons to hang around just a little longer: Her successor at Monte del Sol is none other than her daughter, Jessica Butler.
Butler ends her career at 400-260, eighth-most in state history — and fourth most for coaches whose win totals are exclusively from New Mexico schools.
Her 2002 team at St. Michael’s won the Class 3A state championship.
The younger Butler will take over for her mom when preseason tryouts begin Aug. 15. She had served as Chela Butler’s varsity assistant for the last two years, learning the ropes and getting a feel for a program that her mom led for six years.
“You know, twice I got to the point where I thought it was all getting to be a little too much for me,” Chela Butler said, reflecting on a career that has made her one of the most successful coaches in state history. “The first time it was after what I’d say was a demanding situation where there really was no end to the season. We’d play our last game and then we’d be right back into it before school even let out. It was hard to hold my focus after, what, 19 years.”
The second time was more of a slow burn. It came during her time at Monte del Sol, a school with just a fraction of the enrollment of her previous stops.
Having had previous coaching stints at Santa Fe High (1987-92) and St. Michael’s (1992-2011),
Butler started her time at Monte del Sol eight years ago as a junior varsity coach. She held that spot for two years and, frankly, she was drawn to it by the school’s laid-back approach to sports.
“At St. Mike’s it was pretty intense, which was fun for a long time,” Butler said. “We’d end the season in November, get into May and it would start back up again with camps and games all summer, then practices again in early August going through November.”
At Monte, she said, the season really didn’t start until August largely because of logistics. The school has never had its own gymnasium, leading to something resembling a nomadic lifestyle for girls just trying to have fun with an activity.
In many ways that was just fine with Butler. Despite the challenges, she twice led the Dragons to the brink of their first-ever state tournament and regularly had the team winning its fair share of matches.
The idea of passing the torch to her daughter is the perfect way to go out, she said.
“I’m so excited for her, just really proud of her for everything she’s done,” Butler said. “It’s kind of like going full circle. She was a player raised by a coach, then got to see things from my side and now she’s doing it on her own.”
A native of Southern California, Butler was introduced to Santa Fe in the late 1970s when she was recruited to play volleyball for the College of Santa Fe. She played all four years for the Knights and chose to move back to town in the mid-’80s after she and Joe Butler got married.
The couple has raised two kids and is working on a growing list of grandkids.
“Jessie’s been my assistant long enough that it opened her eyes to how hard this can be, so I’m just happy we can be here to help with our grandkids and give Jess and [son] Joey the chance to do what we did,” Butler said.
Having doubled as Monte del Sol’s athletic coordinator for three years, Butler said she’s happy to hold onto a full-time teaching position and be the volunteer helper who can skip out early and be home at nights and weekends.
“Gosh, how many nights were there in the gym?” Butler said. “Years and years of them, for sure. Maybe I’ll do the scorekeeping because no one really seems to know how to do that. The coaching stuff, though, that’s Jess’s job now.”