South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

It’s hard enough to maintain an honor roll-worthy grade point average and play sports from August until March. Doing that while holding down a job is even more difficult, yet that is exactly what Thomasville High senior Carlton Butts has been doing for quite a while. Butts is the epitome of the student-athlete. He plays multiple sports at a very high level and has excelled in the classroom since he started school. As his high school years come to a close, he stands on the cusp of what will surely be a successful college career.

Butts had no choice but to do well in school. His family wouldn’t have had it any other way. He started school early, at three years old. According to LaRosa Butts, his mother, her son was on the Honor Roll from day one. “I always had high expectations for all of my children. Carlton has been motivated to do well himself but I’ve stayed on him. You know how we mothers are with our children,” she laughs.

Butts credits those high expectations with keeping him on the road to academic success. “My mom and the other members of my family expected a lot out of me. I had to do well,” he says. One of the reasons he has been such a good student is because he was always at school. For nearly 11 years, Butts didn’t miss a day.  In his junior year, an illness ruined his perfect attendance record but it did little to hamper his grade point average.

In Georgia, mathematics and science courses can be difficult. Fewer and fewer high school students are pursuing math and science-related fields after graduation. Butts is the exception. He doesn’t particularly like social studies and history classes, saying it’s too hard remembering the specifics from the past, but he loves math and science. “I really enjoy those kinds of classes. They just come naturally to me, especially math,” he says. Butts is serious about math and science. His career goals are to become an electronic or mechanical engineer a few years down the road. “I think those fields would be natural for me. I also think they are very interesting,” he says.

Staying near the top of his graduating class while plotting an engineering career is enough to keep him busy, yet Butts isn’t interested in being a mere bookworm. He’s also a gifted athlete who really had no choice but to play sports. His mother ran track in high school, competing in the 880 and the 440 relay. LaRosa Butts is modest about her athletic ability but admits that she was pretty fast in her heyday. Butts’s father, Rickey Porter, took athletics more seriously. He was a quarterback in high school until an injury ended his career. It wasn’t enough to keep him off the basketball court, and he played semi-pro basketball in the Miami area for several years after high school.

Butts received athletic genes from both parents and he’s made the most of his gifts. His mother gave her blessing for Butts to play recreation football in fifth grade. When he first strapped on his pads, she never dreamed that he would end up where he is today.

Butts is a 6’2”, 196-pound center/defensive end/linebacker who also plays on the punt and kick return teams. When football season ends – and over the last few years, it hasn’t ended until late in November – he serves as a shooting guard/small forward for the Bulldogs basketball team. Butts anchors the offensive line on a team that has made the playoffs each of his previous two years on the varsity squad. In both years, the Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

After playing 12 games in 2009, Butts wanted to do everything he could to help his team move beyond the second round. He knows how to use his athletic ability to keep his opponents off balance. He can explode off the ball once he gets it to the quarterback and he can drive his blocking assignment out of the way, creating a nice lane for his running backs. Defensively, he has an uncanny ability to find the ball carrier no matter where he is on the field. Butts has deceptive speed. He’s not the fastest player on the field but he moves fast enough to make the tackle. He knows that each game, sometimes each play, contains some level of adversity. He doesn’t dwell on the past; he simply puts the last play behind him and prepares for the next snap.

Playing for a team like Thomasville is going to create plenty of big moments. The highlight of Butts’s career came last year in week one of the season. His Bulldogs traveled across town to face the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets, a team that would eventually go all the way to the quarterfinals. The Bulldogs-Yellow Jackets matchup is always one of the most anticipated football games in South Georgia. The 2009 edition was a close contest, one the Bulldogs pulled out, 13-9. “There was an intense atmosphere in the stadium. We had a lot of people in the stands pumping us up,” recalls Butts. Not only did Thomasvile win, Butts also had a big sack in the game as well.

Butts has attracted the attention of a number of colleges and universities. His grades coupled with his play on the football field will likely land him on a college team. Playing in college has always been a goal for him, but not one that he thought likely until last year. He put on some weight and got stronger, and saw his game go up a notch. His father says letters have been pouring in. “We’ve probably gotten letters from about 15 schools,” he says.

One Georgia school, Clark Atlanta, is very interested in Butts. In college, he would probably find himself playing outside linebacker, which seems to be what recruiters are seeing when they watch him play. Butts isn’t particular about what position he plays – he just wants the opportunity. “Right now, he hasn’t decided where he will go. We want him to make his own decision. We don’t want to pressure him,” says Porter.  LaRose Butts isn’t too worried about where her son will end up. “I’ve raised him on Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. If he is motivated, he can do anything he wants to,” she says.

Football and basketball aren’t Butts’s only activities at Thomasville High. He’s also a member of the National Honor Society and he holds down a job at the local Dairy Queen. It’s not easy balancing football, basketball, work and school but he’s done it. Butts just knows that no matter what, he has obligations to his team, his family and his employer that have to be met. Somehow, some way, he finds a way to satisfy them all. •

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