It was confirmed on Tuesday that Carbon High’s Wade Williams and Jared Butler have been relieved of their coaching duties. Carbon School District Superintendent Lance Hatch confirmed the decision.
“Carbon High School is seeking to replace their head softball coach and their head boys’ basketball coach,” Hatch said. “Both Wade Williams and Jared Butler have dedicated a lot of time and energy on behalf of Carbon High students. We express appreciation to them. We also recognize the responsibility of school administration to supervise coaches and occasionally make coaching changes, which is what occurred here.”
In Williams’ scenario, the announcement comes on the heels of the softball team’s Corona Classic Tournament win. Spring sports around the nation were cut short due to COVID-19, but Carbon looked as good as ever in its limited action. The Lady Dinos backed up that notion, going undefeated in the recent tournament. While some may say that there were 3A schools that did not attend, all were invited. Carbon did all it could against the opponents it played.
Going back to the past two full seasons, the Lady Dinos finished in the top six in each of those years. They were also eliminated in one-run games in both seasons, demonstrating how competitive the contests were. Carbon softball has been an established program for many years in the state. Williams’ tenure will come to an end after more than a decade of dedication and hard work with the program.
The release of Butler is also unexpected. He came into the struggling program just one year ago, after the team went 8-15 in 2018-19. The Dinos finished 7-15 in Butler’s first year, which admittedly at first glance, does not look like much of an improvement. One should bear in mind that Carbon was moved into a new region between those two years, and the Dinos left the weakest region in 3A and joined the toughest.
Another important piece to remember is how young Carbon was last year. The Dinos only had two seniors on the team and they lost their three leading scorers from the previous year. Shooting was the Dinos’ Achilles’ heel throughout the season, but that is not unusual with a young team. It appeared that Carbon improved week-to-week on the court and many were looking forward to see how the Dinos would preform under Butler in his second year.
Most teams have already started summer practice and are gearing up for the upcoming season. Not only does the decision hinder the Dinos, it impacts Butler as well as other coaching jobs have already been filled. Namely, the recently filled positions at Emery, where Butler was an assistant before taking the helm with the Dinos. Butler will retain his teaching position at Carbon.