Keep it in the family: Brother, sister coaching duo bring family feel to McNair football

Brittany Butler didn’t know that her path was taking a somewhat familiar shape.

With girls' flag football becoming an official high school sport across San Joaquin County, a coaching opportunity opened up at her alma mater McNair High School.

The 2014 graduate was a standout in basketball during her time as an Eagle and initially wanted in on their basketball program. After working at the school for two years as a campus security guard, she decided to take her talents to the field as the head coach of McNair’s first girls’ flag football team.

“I’m a basketball player, so transitioning to that was kind of different, but I mean, I'm an athlete and I played football, basketball and baseball while growing up,” Butler said. “And then on top of that, my older brother, he is the head coach of the football team here. Any questions that I had or any insight that I needed I just went to him.”

Like brother, like sister

Butler followed in her older brother Chris Hall’s footsteps as they both tried to build up McNair’s football programs. Hall, who is the oldest of six siblings, has been at the helm of McNair football for three seasons; however, he’s been ingrained in the Eagle community since he was younger.

He was a part of the Eagles squad that made it all the way to the playoffs, a tall feat for newer schools in the 209. This season he led his team to a third-place finish in the San Joaquin Athletic Association with a 5-5 overall record, an improvement from last year’s finish. Hall has been able to set an example for the family-like feel Butler wants to bring to the girls' side.

“Family is big to me,” Hall said. “I'm close to every one of my brothers and sisters and growing up my Mom taught us that your family is first always no matter what. Football is just something else for us to talk about. I don’t think you can make the relationship closer than what it already is.”

Hall and Butler bounced ideas off of each other all season long.

Butler ran both offense and defense for her team; her brother acted as her right hand, giving her guidance along the way. Her team similarly finished third in the SJAA with a solid 9-5 overall record and earned a spot in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 playoff. The season came with its peaks and valleys throughout the season, ending the year with only seven players.

"The seven of us remaining we all wanted it," said Anjuile Navarro, McNair girls' flag football quarterback and wide receiver. "We all wanted to play hard and we were the ones who clicked. Coach Butler always pushes us to keep going because she wants to win."

Butler's biggest takeaway from her brother after her first season as a head coach had to do with the success of the program off the field.

“He would say to me a lot, like, ‘Never give up. You’re going to deal with a bunch of kids that are going through a lot of things and how you treat these kids are how you’re going to be treated,'” Butler said. “He told me to 'Just keep fighting for them, no matter what.'”

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A family affair

Butler and Hall aren’t the only ones in their family with strong ties to the McNair football community.

Jeromy Johnson, Hall, and Butler’s older cousin was a part of the Eagles' first-ever graduating class in 2008. He also played football at McNair before becoming the team’s wide receiver coach for the past decade.

Johnson jumped at the opportunity to go to school with Hall, who is one year younger than him. He was just as eager to coach under him once he took over as head coach in 2021.

“There's never been McNair football without Chris Hall,” Johnson said. “Literally every single team he’s had a hand in it. This is year three for him as head coach but you can see his footprint on everything now that he's in full control of it. He’s changed the overall culture here.”

The culture Hall brought to his alma mater was family-based.

If he isn’t working one-on-one with his players then he’s advocating for them as he knows the struggles of trying to take football to the next level. When it was his time to hang up his cleats he decided to dedicate the rest of his football knowledge to the next generation of Eagles.

“I'm so big on McNair,” Hall said. “I graduated from here, my cousin and my sister graduated from here also and we really care and want to try to keep this family-knit environment. You play hard and go hard for your family when it's more than just a teammate. That’s our goal and I hope we get there.”

With Hall, Johnson, and now Butler all committed to coaching McNair football next season, the Eagles are looking to grow its family as well as bring home Ws, together.

Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Chris Hall and Brittany Butler bring family feel to McNair football