UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 14)

How did you get into coaching? How do you define your role as coach? Butterfield: I really didn’t have a choice. I grew up wanting to be like my dad (National Football Hall of Fame Coach Jim Butterfield, who won three national titles in 30 years at Ithaca College in New York). I was the kid who rode my bike to the college each day after school just so I could be around it. The competition and the instruction part of it appealed to me, but so did the camaraderie—seeing a group of guys, all working together and pulling for the common good. Each and every student-athlete is different. Some need a kick in the pants. Others can’t handle a kick in the pants. Some need a pat on the back. Some need to be challenged. It’s my job to try to figure out what makes each kid tick and what it takes to get the very best out of each one of them. Sanders: I’ve been playing sports all my life. As a kid, I didn’t really like volleyball because it wasn’t a contact sport. Once I started playing, though, I started having some success and getting recognition. What kind of kid doesn’t like that? After college, I planned to go to physical therapy school, but my college coach had an opening on her staff and asked me if I’d like to give it a try. Throughout my career, I learned more and more about the dynamics of the sport and discovered I had a pretty good IQ for it. Sports is where I had the most success in life, so I decided to stay with it. And here we are 10 years later. As a coach, the most important thing I’ve learned is that you have to develop a good relationship with your players, listen and communicate with them. You have to figure out what it will take to motivate them to do what you need them to do in order to be successful. Motivation comes when they realize they’re getting out of it what they’re putting in. You’re managing people, not players. The game comes second. COURTSIDE SUCCESS To what do you attribute your team's level of success in recent years? Butterfield: The key for us has been finding a group of good players who also happened to be exceptional guys―smart students with good heads on their shoulders. That has allowed us to run some pretty involved offensive and defensive schemes on the court that our kids have really bought into. We’re rarely the most athletic team on the floor, but we’re very structured in what we do, and we do it well. Sanders: Winning is always the measure of success, but I think it begins by developing relationships with the kids you are recruiting. We’ve worked hard finding those kids who are the “whole package” —talent, determination and a willingness to trust us and work hard to meet our goals. When you can put all those pieces together, winning takes care of itself. When you recruit, what are you looking for in an ideal student-athlete? Butterfield: You have to find kids who are passionate about playing their sport at a higher level. They have to be willing to work hard and sacrifice for very little in return. There’s no financial reward or fancy shoe contract in Division III. We’re not on television all the time. They have to love the game and want to be part of a team. If you took basketball away from these guys, it would be like peeling away part of their personality. Being an athlete is just part of who they are. Sanders: At Division III, you have to find student-athletes who are self-motivated and self-disciplined because there are no athletic scholarships. At this level, they’re here because they want to be. The game isn’t any different. You have to find kids who are committed and willing to work hard to achieve your goals. Obviously, you’ve been able to find talented players in order to achieve success. How important is talent? Butterfield: The longer I’m in coaching, the more it has come slamming home to me that you have to have talented kids. Even in Division III, the bar has been raised so high at the top levels. But I also think that character is just as important. We may not have the best athletes out there, but we’re going to have a group of guys who are really going to play together and put themselves second to the good of the team. 14 utdallas.edu Marci Sanders http://www.utdallas.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
On Campus
From the Lab
Arts and Culture
Courtside Success
Athletics
Research Is Teaching
Town and Gown
In Your Footsteps: An Alumni Perspective
Alumni Notes
In Memoriam
Hindsight

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012