Jared Butler, Carbon Head Basketball Coach
Carbon High School basketball recently announced a change to its basketball coaching staff. Jared Butler, who was an assistant coach at Carbon and most recently an assistant basketball coach at Emery High, will be the next head coach of the Dinos. His coaching staff will consist of Cami Carlson (junior varsity coach) and Moge Cologie (sophomore coach). The freshman coach is still to be determined; however, the word is that a former student from a number of years ago will step into the role.
The change allowed ETV News to sit down with Butler for a brief Q&A session regarding Dino basketball. Here is our conversation:
Q: Short-term, what are a few points of emphasis for the upcoming year?
A: “To slim the team down. I would rather our kids get maybe a game and a half or two games in (JV and varsity or sophomore and JV), than half a game. I don’t know if that is what happened here before. I just want to get more opportunities to an underclassman that is as good or better than an upperclassman. That will help us out. Also, one big emphasis is that this has to be team. It has to be team. I’m not saying that they weren’t… It’s not about any one individual. I don’t want them to stand out. I want them to kinda look the same. We are going to dress the same. We will go down together and succeed together. That’s a big part of emphasis for the future.”
Q: When you say ‘slim down’ are you talking about lower numbers so underclassman get more experience and game time?
A: “Yes. Say instead of 28 kids, [we will have] maybe 20. Probably more realistically 22. We will have to see because we are going to run the four programs; have a freshman team, sophomore, JV and varsity. It is really hard because I don’t know the kids and if they don’t let me see them during the three-day tryout, you might cut a pretty good kid. So, the better they can show what they have and can do, the more it will help us out. It’s a nervous, tough time, but that’s part of it too. Because if its fourth quarter, crunch time, it’s nervous. The kids have to perform. But if you can see a kid, ‘Oh, I can tell that he is a better player than what he is showing here.’ That’s a lot better going into it as a coach instead of ‘Man, I thought this kid was alright. Everyone has told me about him, but…’ I think that is a plus too. I don’t know the kids. If they can play on the court, they will. I don’t know their families. The politics side should be a lot less for me. [Another thing, we have to] try to be positive, that’s one thing. I want to be positive, even when there’s issues. We choose them to be on our team, now we need to help them succeed the best we can.”
Q: Long-term, what is your vision of Dino Basketball?
A: “To be a contender. To be a team that our opponents will look at us and know we are going to give them fits. That’s something that for the boys hasn’t been here in the 15 years I’ve been [teaching] here. They have usually had a losing season. Long-term, we want to succeed. That takes baby steps, improving in every aspect of the game. But a lot of it I think is this team mentality. ‘WE can succeed.’ They have to learn that everyone has to work together.”
Q: Emery and Carbon will be in the same region next year. Your kids went to Emery, you’ve coached at both schools, but most recently Emery. Do you think that will add fuel to the rivalry fire, so to speak?
A: “Yeah, now that my own personal kids are graduated and out of the system, they have already told me, ‘Yeah, I may cheer for Carbon when they are not playing Emery.’ Over there, those kids are black and gold through and through. And Carbon, they are the same way. The football team won this year, so that was huge. As far as Emery goes, I’ll love to see Emery succeed all the time, I’ll root for them all the time. But that’s a done deal now, as far as when we are playing against them, it’s Carbon. I look up to Coach Jeffs; he has taught me so much. I hope he succeeds. He does so much hard work and goes far every year but weird things happen. That’s the thing: as a coach, you understand that you have to be good AND have all the luck in the world. I think we have a few pieces right now that will let us compete. We are probably still in the toughest region in the state. Richfield, San Juan and Emery will all be solid.”
Q: Is there a type of scheme on offensive and defensive that you like to run?
A: I like to push the ball for a fast break layup right off the bat. We are going to run all we can and then if that gets stoped, we will run a few set plays to get a quick basket. That is what I have learned from Coach Jeffs. Then, if we have to, we will go into an offense. Our offense will be determined on personnel. We will have to see what goes on this summer and through open gym. Defensively, same thing. It’s going to have to change yearly. That’s one thing I have noticed with good coaching; you have to do what works best with the personnel you have.”
Q: When deciding between game planning an opponent and schemes that fit your personnel, which one trumps the other?
A: “For me personally, we have to consider what we have first over who is coming in. But, you definitely have to take what you are good at and then tweak it to what they are good at and try to work it together. Usually through preseason, before we get to region, we will work on us. And then we will start scouting, ‘this is what we are going to do’. That can change in the middle of the game. We could be in a zone and they could be lighting us up and we will have to go to man. All of that is on the table.”
Q: What can you tell us about your assistant coaches?
A: Cami Carlson (JV coach) has been a head coach for quite a few years for girls’ volleyball and basketball. They love her as a teacher; she is probably the most respected teacher at our school. Moge Cologie will be the sophomore coach. He is one of my best friends, clear back from junior high. He is an official right now, so we will pull him out of officiating.”