Alyson Butler Overcomes Obstacles With Basketball
9/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Playing college basketball in the SEC forces an athlete to overcome obstacles and setbacks. To compete with the best players in the nation night after night requires that a player must be able to move past mental and physical setbacks throughout a career.
For Tide freshman Alyson Butler, though, the experience of playing basketball has not always been so much about overcoming obstacles. Instead, the game itself has been a tool for her to overcome difficult times off the court.
Those difficult times centered around one of the most traumatic experiences for anybody, a serious illness in the family. Alyson’s father, Al, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the winter of 2003. For a teenager accustomed to worrying about nothing other than basketball and school, the news was hard to take.
“I remember finding out around Christmas in 2003,” Butler said. “It was really hard to hear something like that about your dad, so it was a tough time there for awhile.”
Just like anyone dealing with the devastating effects of a cancer diagnosis in the family, Butler struggled with seeing her father battle the disease, with all of the side-effects of chemotherapy and surgery that followed.
“It was really tough to see him being sick and tired all the time,” Butler said. “He loves his job and was always a hard worker, so I knew that missing work and not being able to do all the things he wanted to do was just killing him. That was tough for me to see.”
Thankfully, for Butler, though, she had the game of basketball to fall back on to help her cope with all of the emotions that accompany a life-threatening illness to a parent.
“Basketball was my time away from everything,” Butler said. “I could just go out there and play. That was a time to forget about everything else going on off the floor and just have fun for awhile.”
The game she had played since the second grade, then, became her avenue of escape. But even playing basketball would sometimes bring back reminders of what her father was fighting each day.
“He had to go to New York for a time to get treatment at one of the best places, so he was gone for awhile,” Butler said. “And then when he got home, he was going through chemotherapy and he wasn’t always feeling good enough to make it to my games. That was hard, because he had always been there for everything I had done.”
To her credit, those distractions didn’t take away from her accomplishments on the floor. Butler’s career at Walker Valley High School in Cleveland, Tenn., was nothing short of phenomenal. The sharpshooting lefty finished her career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,159 points. She averaged 22 points, five rebounds and five assists as a senior and led Walker Valley to one Final Four appearance and three Sweet Sixteen berths.
The 5-10 guard earned All-State honors by the Tennessee Sportswriters Association as a junior and as a senior and earned honorable mention accolades from the Associated Press in each of those seasons. She was an all-area, all-region and all-district selection three times and had her jersey (#22) retired by Walker Valley at the conclusion of her illustrious career.
Her accomplishments as a prep weren’t limited to basketball, however. Butler was her class president three times while graduating seventh in her class with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She was a member of the National Honor Society and the Anchor Club and was named Walker Valley’s FCA Athlete of the Year as a senior. Butler was on the Homecoming Court, was named prom queen and was named to the school’s Valentine Court as well.
At the center of it all for Butler, though, was her family. For the Butlers, basketball provided a way to cope with adversity, something the new Tide guard will always be grateful for.
“I always remembered that I was playing for my dad and for my family,” Butler said. “Family always comes first for me and I always had that in the back of my head. Everyone in my family came to my games, even my grandparents, so it was a place we could get together and try not to worry about all of the other things going on.”
Her ordeal also played a huge role in her college decision. Being away from family and friends was not something Butler wanted to do again, so coming to Alabama fit the bill for her in more ways than one.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I could get along well with the coaching staff and be close enough to home that I could be there if I was needed,” Butler said. “So far, it’s been perfect. I love our staff and I love being able to get home if I have to.”
Even though she has only been here a short time, Butler has already earned the respect of her new coach.
“In recruiting Alyson, we recognized quickly that she is a phenomenal shooter, and that ability far outstood any other at the beginning,” head coach Stephany Smith said. “After working with her for just a few weeks, she has much more depth to her game and her character than I ever imagined, and that has been such a bonus. Her toughness and physicality and the mental attributes she brings to practice every day are going to make her a big factor for us this season.”
Thankfully, this family story has a happy ending. Al has beaten his cancer diagnosis and is in remission. The Butler family, just over three hours away from Tuscaloosa, is planning on making many trips to Coleman Coliseum to see Alyson face some of the best players in the nation in a Crimson Tide uniform.
If she is able to accomplish a fraction of what she was able to as a high school player, those trips will be joyful ones indeed. And for the Butlers, basketball will once again be truly a family affair.
