(Griswold) Raymond Butt won nearly 500 games as Griswold’s softball coach. He’s the guest this week for KSOM/KS95.7’s “Why I Coach” podcast.
He started teaching and coaching in Lewis way back in 1959. Upon Butt’s retirement in 1999 he had the Griswold softball field named after him. He’s proud of the fact they never had a losing season and a big highlight of his coaching career came in 1985 when they finally qualified for state. “In ’85 we went to the state tournament and had a ball. They were a bunch of real good players and all played together. The weather helped us in the finals of the district tournament. We were supposed to go up to Irwin-Kirkman to play Charter Oak-Ute for our final game, but it got rained out multiple times. Our field got ready and our Superintendent called up to the Athletic Union to see if they could bring the game to Griswold, which they did.”
Typically neutral sites are used for the game to go to state, but multiple rainouts worked out in Griswold’s favor as they got to host in ’85. “I think that really helped us a lot, getting to play that game at home. Charter Oak had a pretty long drive and got off the bus and had to go play ball. We were so relaxed.” He remembers Charter Oak-Ute being unhappy about having to travel.
Butt remembers the final three outs they recorded to advance to state. They turned a double play off of a popped up bunt and then a pop up to 2nd base ended the contest. “That was probably our most exciting game we played.”
It was unfortunate they never made it to state prior to that. There were several close calls. “In the early 1980’s I probably had my best pitcher, Wendy Stonehocker, she won 100 games and all the time we had her we just couldn’t quite make it to the state tournament. The year after she graduated, we ended up making it.”
Lewis and Griswold were the only teaching and coaching jobs he ever knew. He made a lot of friendships and felt at home. An ad in the Sunday Des Moines Register led the Tarkio, MO native to the position. “I was hunting a job to teach and one way to find jobs was the Sunday Des Moines Register. I found one and interviewed up at Lewis and I ended up getting it.”
Butt still has a reserved parking spot right next to the field for him to come and watch games. He lists Fred Hilderbrant, Gerry Bergstrom, and Steve Baier as some of the coaches he enjoyed working with.
Previous Coaches
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
