Walter Butler wraps up football career at Massachusetts Maritime

October 20, 2011

By Dan Crowley, Bourne Enterprise

Bourne’s Walter Butler grew up playing football. It was his family, his job, a way of life. Next month on November 5, he will end his 14-year career that began with Bourne Pop Warner when he steps off the playing field for the final time with the Massachusetts Maritime Buccaneers after the 33rd Annual Cranberry Bowl at Bridgewater State.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Butler said. “Without football my life would have been a lot different.  Football is a lifestyle and it’s one I’m going to miss a lot.”

Butler began playing football in Bourne with his older brother, Alex, at the age of 7. When high school time rolled around, he followed his brother to Bishop Stang High School, where together they took the Spartans all the way to the Super Bowl.

“I was a sophomore and Alex was a senior,” Butler recalled.  “We were both starting linebackers.  Our team had a great year.  We faced Duxbury in the Super Bowl in Brockton and lost.”

Alex moved on to Massachusetts Maritime Academy, leaving Walter with two more seasons with the Spartans and he made the best of them. In both his junior and senior seasons, Walter was named an Eastern Athletic Conference All-Star. As a junior he was named by the New Bedford Standard Times to the Super Team second squad. The next year he was on the first team of the Times’ Super Team and was named the Spartans MVP.  He finished his senior year one touchdown shy of the school record, ending that year with 22.

Four years ago Butler arrived at Massachusetts Maritime, where he was reunited with his brother on the gridiron with the Buccaneers.

“When I got out of high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do,”  Butler explained. “My brother suggested that I come to Mass Maritime. I knew if I did I could play football again with my brother and I’d be close to home.”

The Butlers live almost within sight of the MMA campus in Buzzards Bay.

“The years have had their ups and downs,” Butler said of his time playing football for the Bucs.  “My freshman year we were 0-10.  That was tough. Last year and again this year, everyone is more together and relaxed and we’re winning.”

This season Butler, one of the MMA team captains, was named the New England Football Conference Player of the Week for the second time. He first received the honor a year earlier in his junior year.

The Buccaneers opened their 2011 fall campaign with a 19-14 victory over Western New England University, a team that they had lost to a year earlier.

“After losing to Western New England last year, we didn’t know what to expect,” Butler said.  “They came in and thought they would roll over us but that wasn’t the case.”

The season-opening win set the tone for Butler and the Bucs as they put together back-to- back victories with a 51-13 triumph over MIT. But then the team stumbled, losing on the road to Coast Guard and at home to Framingham State.

“I have to give a huge amount of credit to Assistant Coach (and defensive coordinator) Rob Davenport,” Butler said. “He is the reason why our defense plays like it does and why we’re winning. He has a great influence over us. When he and Head Coach (Jeremy) Cameron talk, everyone listens. We couldn’t do what we’re doing defensively without Coach Davenport.”

The Bucs got back on the winning track with a huge victory over undefeated Worcester State.  They then added another win on the road, defeating Fitchburg State.

“After those two lodses, beating Worcester felt great,” he said. “It was a complete team effort. It’s games like that that make you want to go to practice on Monday.”

Six games into the season he leads his team in solo tackles (36), total tackles (41) and blocked kicks (3) and with his tenacious play from his outside linebacker position, he leads the team in quarterback hurries with seven.

This weekend the Buccaneers have a very tough game as they’ll face Maine Maritime in the 39th Annual Admiral’s Cup.  For now Walter Butler is looking ahead, taking his final three games one game at a time.

“It’s surreal to think of it being over,” he said of his football career.  “It hasn’t hit me. I’ve been doing this every fall since I was 7.  It’s going to be strange not having football.”

All of his best friends play football.

“This game isn’t just about winning and scoring touchdowns,” he said. “It’s about family. No one wants to get up at 6 AM and go to the weight room but we do. We go through a lot together in this game. We earn each other’s respect.  There are guys I’ve played football with that will always be close friends. We’re family.”

In all the years that Walter Butler has played football, many times alongside his brother Alex, his parents, Walter and Victoria Butler, have been there for their sons.

“They come to all my games,”  Walter said. “Even my sister Victoria, who is in the 5th grade at St. Margaret’s, comes to my games.  Between football and my family, it’s like I have two families.”

An international maritime business major, Walter Butler will begin a new chapter in his life this spring when he graduates from MMA. He has already had job interviews with the prospect of employment with a major corporation on the horizon. But whatever the future holds, football after November 5 will be over but his memories and a few scars will last him a lifetime.

“I’m very glad I went down this road,” he said of football and his decision to attend MMA. “I have no regrets. I’m a football player and I always will be.”