Unprecedented success: Edgewood's Garrett Butcher a no-doubt hall of famer
It was a heyday the likes of which Edgewood High School had never seen before in its 40-year history.
From 2004-08, the Edgewood boys’ basketball team won 74 games, three sectional titles, four conference titles, fashioned an undefeated regular season and garnered No. 1 rankings in 2007 and ‘08.
Through all that there was a constant: 6-foot-7 forward Garrett Butcher.
From the time Butcher stepped onto the floor as a freshman, the Mustangs began winning with unprecedented frequency. Butcher never missed a start and wound up not only in Edgewood’s record books but Monroe County’s as well. He finished with 1,820 points, not only a county record but also the highest four-year point total of any other graduating senior in the state of Indiana in 2008. No wonder his No. 32 Edgewood jersey is now retired.
And those are just some of the credentials that have earned him a spot in the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023. He also is the county’s second all-time leading rebounder with 830 boards (second only to Sean May) and second in single-season points with 635. Edgewood records include games played (94), games in double figures (84), double-doubles (37), double-figure rebounds games (39), free throws made-attempted (545-714), and the single-game record of 43 points that stood for nine years.
Butcher was named to the Indiana All-Star Team in 2008, the only Edgewood player to hold that distinction. He caught the eye of Butler coach Brad Stevens and was given a full ride. Knee injuries plagued him throughout his college career, but he played some meaningful minutes in Butler’s runs to the NCAA title games in 2010 and 2011. He was named a co-captain in 2012.
Edgewood coach Jay Brown knew he had something special coming out of Edgewood Junior High in 2004.
“Garrett had an upside better than anybody I had ever been around,” Brown said. “His work ethic was outstanding. He had an inside game, a mid-range game, so many ways we could set things up for him. He was never too good to be coached.”
'He went NBA on us'
With Edgewood’s Mustang Corral packed throughout Butcher’s last two years, two games stand out. In his junior year, the Mustangs played host to county rival Bloomington South, ranked No. 5 in 4A and winner of 11 straight over Edgewood. Butcher erupted for 38 points in a 62-58 upset, prompting South coach J.R. Holmes to lament, “We didn’t expect Butcher to go NBA on us.”
“J.R. doesn’t usually say a lot about opposing players,” Butcher said, “but I had a good relationship with him. To get that kind of acknowledgment from him was special.”
Edgewood guard Tommy Weakley was awed by Butcher’s dominance that night.
“It was unbelievable,” Weakley said. “Intense as the atmosphere was, I remember thinking it was a special performance. It was nice to have Garrett on our side. He was easy to play with, a good teammate, level-headed and very humble. He was naturally gifted but also had a good brain and worked very hard from the time he was a kid.”
Beating South was the key hurdle in that 2006-07 season that saw the Mustangs finish 20-0, the only team in the state to go undefeated in the regular season.
They were ranked No. 1 in 3A at season’s end, and with Butcher back along with the sharpshooting Weakley for 2007-08, the Mustangs once again found themselves at the top of the polls when the Washington Hatchets visited Edgewood on Dec. 7.
Bank job sinks Zellers
The Hatchets featured 7-footer Tyler Zeller, 6-11 Seth Coy and a rising freshman, 6-8 Cody Zeller. That's two future NBA players via North Carolina and Indiana and another Division I player in Coy who tragically died his freshman year at East Tennessee State.
“It’s hard to describe how big and talented they were,” Butcher said. “Tyler was a McDonald’s All-American and Cody comes off the bench at 6-8 and plays guard. It was like going up against a college team.”
An overflow crowd at the Corral was treated to an instant classic. With Tyler Zeller and making almost every shot (18-for-21) along the way to a game-high 42 points, it was all the Mustangs could do to stay in the game. They trailed 62-55 with just over two minutes to play when the 5-11 Weakley bombed in three 3s over the daunting fingertips of Coy to tie the score at 64 inside the final minute.
A charging foul on Zeller gave the ball back to the Mustangs with a chance to play for the last shot. Even though Weakley had the hot hand, all eyes were on a Butcher-Zeller final duel. Butcher already had used his quickness to score 26 points against the bigger Hatchet front line, so there was no hesitation on Brown’s part to dial up a play for his go-to guy.
“We tried to keep it simple,” Brown said. “We cleared out the floor and let Garrett go one-on-one. If they helped out on him, we had Tommy in the corner.”
Butcher took an inbounds pass from side court and went right at Zeller. He curled around the right side of the lane, raised up and then had to use some extra hang time just to even see the basket beyond the imposing frame of Zeller.
“I remember going to my right, which is not the most efficient for me,” Butcher said. “Going left was more my money side. In those moments, your practice and instincts take over. All I could see was Tyler’s hands, but I was able to shift a little bit to the right and shoot around him. I couldn’t see the basket, but I could see the square for a bank shot. Bank shots are not my forte, but I’m thinking, ‘Either it’s going to get blocked or I’m going to hang there longer and find a way to shoot around him.’ “
Butcher did indeed find a way. His 10-footer banked softly off the glass and in with 3.8 seconds left.And when Weakley caused a turnover to prevent the Hatchets from getting off a shot, the crowd stormed the court.
“That was another game you never forget,” Brown said. “People were parking at the junior high and elementary schools before the JV game. For Garrett to perform on that big a stage and beat that team on a last-second shot was indescribable.”
A mentor in McGlone
Butcher dreamed of such moments as a kid playing in his driveway. His father, Mike, gave him a steady dose of Indiana high school basketball by taking him to games all over south-central Indiana.
“I watched a ton of high school basketball as a kid,” Butcher said. “I got to see great teams and great players. Bloomington South was really good back then, and Bloomington North was producing NBA draft picks like Jared Jeffries and Sean May. We would go to White River Valley and watch the Graves brothers (Matthew, Andrew, A.J.). We would go to Dugger and see Brody Boyd. We would go to Eastern Greene and see Levi Carmichael.
"Every Friday night, if we weren’t going to Edgewood, we would be going somewhere else.”
Before Butcher arrived, Edgewood had won only two sectional titles, 1993 and 2002. Title No. 3 came in 2005, Butcher’s freshman year, in one of the greatest games of the Edgewood-Owen Valley rivalry.
Playing for the championship at Greencastle’s McInally Center, the Mustangs and Patriots went three scintillating overtimes before the Mustangs prevailed, 80-75. Foul trouble made Butcher a spectator for much of it, including all three extra periods after fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Kyle McGlone played all 41 minutes and scored 41 points to tie the gym scoring record. For a player averaging 15 points on the season, it was clearly the greatest tournament performance in Edgewood history. Beginning with the final minute of regulation and through the first overtime, McGlone scored all 15 of Edgewood’s points, single-handedly extending the game.
“I had a front-row seat, and Kyle’s competitive edge came out that night,” Butcher said. “It was special to watch. And he took that game over. Every possession he was locked in. That’s a rare thing. It was something you see in the movies.
“Kyle was very much a mentor to me that year.,” Butcher added. “He really took me under his wing and gave me a lot of direction — how to approach practice, how to approach bus rides, how to approach high school life in general. Watching him that night taught me two things: how much you don’t want to lose as a senior and how to take over a game.”
Although Edgewood failed to win a sectional in Butcher’s sophomore year, the Mustangs won the next two, beating Owen Valley each time. However, those Edgewood teams were not able to get through the rugged Washington Regional, losing to Washington in 2005 and ’08.
It was Luke Zeller denying them in ’05 and Tyler Zeller avenging the regular season loss in ’08. Edgewood’s undefeated season of ’07 came to a heartbreaking end as the Mustangs lost by a single point to Madison on a day when Butcher was hampered by a slipped disc in his back.
Bittersweet time at Butler
Butcher’s career at Butler was the best of times and the worst of times. The best is obvious: Butler’s runs to the Final Four in 2010 and ’11. The worst was constant knee pain, which bothered him his entire career.
By the time he was a sophomore, he could barely practice as both knees were basically shot. There were many weeks where he was unable to practice and many game-time decisions on whether he could even think about taking off his sweats. It reduced him to a role player.
“My role was different from game to game,” he said. “I might to go in for (center) Matt Howard and guard a 7-footer. Or I might have to go in at the 3-spot and guard a wing guy. My role was to take charges, be a presence defensively, scrap for the ball, be physical.”
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Which was hard on damaged knees. Doctors told him he had virtually no cartilage left in his left knee and only about 20 percent in his right.
“It was basically bone-on-bone,” Butcher said. “I couldn’t move or jump like I could in high school. Before every game, Coach Stevens would ask, “Can you go tonight? If you can’t, don’t tell me you can.’ I was not going to put him in a position where he was going to rely on me, and I couldn’t do it.”
Hall of Fame career
But Butcher did get to experience those Butler runs, which made it all worthwhile.
“That first one (in Indianapolis) was surreal,” he said. “You can’t even process it. On the journey you don’t have time to put it in perspective. You just focus on the ride. We had 30,000 people at our shootaround (inside Lucas Oil Stadium). We went out to eat and people would walk by the restaurant and bang on the windows. It was the closest thing to being a rock star.”
Although each of those Final Fours ended in disappointment, as well as his personal college career, Butcher has no regrets.
“If you would have told me before I went to Butler and had the personal career I had, I would have said, ‘no way.’ But it ended up where the stars were aligned on all points," he said. "I couldn’t have gone anywhere in the country and have had that kind of team success. It defined what it is to be a team. Like those Edgewood teams, we were all good buddies.”
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Those Butler teams of 2010-11 were inducted into Butler’s Hall of Fame last year, and with Butcher now entering the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame he can take pride in being a two-time hall of famer at the young age of 34.
“Raised in Monroe County, this means a lot to me,” he said. “You see all the pieces that went into my success, my parents, my coaches, my teammates. All those people were a part of my life, and now my name is going up there.”
Hall of Fame banquet
The Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame banquet will take place July 14 at the Monroe Convention Center, starting with a meet and greet at 5 p.m. that's open to the public. The reception begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:45 and the awards presentation at 7:30.
Tickets are $50 and are available at monroecountyshof.org.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Edgewood's Garrett Butcher enters Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame
