Butts guided inexperienced Ross

He led Rams to 8-3 record and  FAVC West title.

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By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer 12:36 AM Sunday, December 11, 2011

ROSS TWP. — With only five starters returning from a squad that struggled down the stretch to finish 7-3 the year before, the Ross High School football team wasn’t exactly inspiring awe among its opponents entering this season.

But inside the locker room, or, more appropriately, inside the heads of the coaches, expectations were as high as always.

“We knew we had talented kids,” coach Brian Butts said. “The JV team had success the year before, and we knew we had some real athletes.”

The Rams met, and in some cases exceeded, the coaches’ expectations, charging to an 8-2 regular season that included a share of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference West Division championship and the sixth playoff berth in school history.

And for those accomplishments, Butts has been named the JournalNews All-Area Coach of the Year, his first such honor in six seasons at the helm at Ross.

“The head coach gets all the publicity in the newspaper, but it really comes down to the whole staff,” Butts said. “One man can’t get the job done.

“The addition of (former Ross head coach) Dick Ballard as defensive coordinator has really helped with the way he motivates. The kids really respond to him,” Butts continued. “And Brian Sawyers, our offensive coordinator, works as hard as anybody and has done a great job for us, as well as the rest of the coaching staff all the way down to the seventh grade.”

Ross has won a league title and qualified for the postseason in two of the last three years, but both times it was an the eighth and final seed. Both times they had to face first-round juggernauts who went on to win state championships — Winton Woods in 2009 and Trotwood-Madison this season.

“We want to get beyond where we are right now, winning league titles and just making the playoffs,” Butts said. “We want to get in and be a program that can make noise and have success.

“For that to happen, we need to take care of some things in the regular season and win some big ballgames that will allow us to get a higher seed and play some teams that are more along the same lines as us.”

Brian Butts has been head football coach at Ross High School for six years.

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