Today’s
stop on the MaxPreps Tour of Champions, presented by the Army National Guard
brings us to Charlotte, North Carolina and to Butler High School. Butler High School is only 12 years old and
this is their first state championship.
Remarkably they finished #8 in the MaxPreps National Rankings poll.
It
was an exciting day at Butler High School as many college coaches were on hand
to talk to some of Butlers top players like Junior Christian LeMay who was
ranked as the number one junior quarterback in the country. Rich Rodriguez of
Michigan, Butch Davis of the University of North Carolina and Dabo Swinney of
Clemson were all on hand today at Butler.
The
event kicked off in grand style as the Butler Bulldogs entered the gym through
a haze of dry ice through the huge inflated bulldog head. Rod Mergardt of MaxPreps took the stage and
spoke of the incredible achievements of Coach Mike Newsome who has done an
amazing job in a short period of time. Rod also announced to the crowd that
Coach Newsome was also just recognized by MaxPreps as the high school football
coach of the year.
Now
it was time for the trophy presentation and we had the great honor to have
Major Jerry Baird from the North Carolina National Guard on hand to deliver the
National Guard National Ranking trophy.
Major Baird is the recruitment commander for all of North Carolina and
he and Sergeant First Class Mike Miller delivered the National Guard National
Ranking Trophy to Coach Newsome as the crowd went crazy. Coach Newsome was truly moved by the national
recognition for his team and thanked all of his assistant coaches while
accepting the trophy.
After
visiting the school and hearing about how strong Butler’s junior class is, I am
making my travel arrangements to visit Butler in 2011. Thanks to all at Butler High School for a
great day!
