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NEWS, NOTES &
COMMENTARY
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The Bradsher Beat
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Butts boosts ECU's sights in
track & field
Freshman sets new
standards during All-American season
By
Bethany Bradsher
©2010 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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Tynita Butts |
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(ECU SID image) |
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Curt Kraft knows that
he is choosing an obvious metaphor for Tynita Butts’ stunning success as
an East Carolina freshman track and field athlete, but since her best
event is the high jump the image just seems to fit.
“She has set the bar so
high that she has no choice but to equal or surpass what she did this year,”
said Kraft, the Pirates’ head track and field coach. “I’m not sure she could
have accomplished any more than she did as a freshman."
In detailing Butts’
dominating romp through two seasons of collegiate field events, the most
dramatic effect comes by starting at the end, on June 9. That was the day
she became ECU’s first female All-American in her sport in 11 years by tying
for seventh place in the high jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in
Eugene, OR.
She didn’t clear her
personal-best height that day, finishing at 1.76 meters in an event where
she reached 1.83 meters earlier this winter, but it was a rainy day, and
rain always gives her confidence, she said. She looked around her, saw her
competitors get discouraged by the weather, and had a feeling that she was
going to be just fine.
“I knew deep down in my
gut that anything could happen,” she said. “I think a lot of people who
don’t know about East Carolina, they didn’t expect it from us.”
So All-American should
top the list, but there are plenty of other honors to fill it out, like
Conference USA Freshman of the Year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons,
C-USA champion in the high jump, ECU record holder in the indoor high jump
and the outdoor high and long jumps, and the first female Pirate to qualify
for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in nearly a decade.
Butts finished 10th in
the high jump at the NCAA indoor meet, narrowly missing another All-America
designation.
All of those good things
happened without extensive coach intervention, jumping coach Joe Blaney
said, because Butts came in with strong technique and experience in big
meets from her prep career at T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, VA.
Blaney made some
adjustments to her approach in the fall, but since her success in indoor
competition he has mostly been hands-off, available to help when she gets
stuck and to offer ideas of how she might be able to improve.
“We just kind of felt
like she was going to do well,” Blaney said. “It’s not my career. It’s not
my success. It’s her success. The bottom line is, this has got to be fun,
even at the elite level.”
One of the reasons Butts
chose to come to ECU was the quick rapport she achieved with coaches like
Blaney and Kraft. She realized that they were committed to her progress as
an athlete, but they were going to let her have veto power over any change
they suggested.
“It helps a lot that
Coach Blaney helps me to do what I want to do,” Butts said. “It’s made a big
effect.”
Because she has become a
nationally known athlete in her events, Butts’ decision to become a Pirate
is already paying dividends for the ECU track program. When Kraft and his
coaches recruit, they hold her up as an example of an elite athlete who is
thriving at East Carolina. They have already signed a couple of strong
recruits from Virginia who were swayed by Butts' stellar first season.
“She singlehandedly could
change the face of this program,” Kraft said. “Success breeds success, and
when people know she’s here, it’s going to help us get the next great
athlete.”
When Kraft thinks of her
next three years of eligibility, he entertains big dreams for Butts. She
could jump 6-feet and higher on a regular basis, become among the top
jumpers in the nation, and even parlay her collegiate success into a
professional track career.
“I’m going to go out
on a limb and say that she’s a girl that I believe can someday be a
national champion, and I really believe that she can go beyond that,” he
said. “She can go to the next level.
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