Ex-Laker Returns to Coach His High School : Butch Carter Proves That You Can Go Home Again

Butch Carter is living proof that, despite the writings of Thomas Wolfe, you can go home again.

This is the same Carter who:

--Led Middletown High School in rural Ohio to the state basketball championship during his senior year of 1976.

--And returned to Middletown 10 years later to coach at his alma mater.

Could this be a case of another former athlete trying to relive his glory days?

Not so. Compared to many of his peers back in Middletown, Carter, a former Laker and five-year National Basketball Assn. veteran, has lived a lifetime in that 10-year stretch out of high school.

“At first, I didn’t think I’d get the job,” said Carter, 28, who was named coach in April. For the sixth summer, he is coaching at the Butch Carter-El Toro basketball camp this week at El Toro High School with El Toro Coach Tim Travers. “But the more involved I got, the more I wanted it.

“You want to get started on your second career as soon as possible, and I’ve always wanted to coach. I think it’ll work out fine. I’m looking forward to it.”

It’s easy to follow Carter’s reasoning for going home.

Carter credits his background at Middletown--specifically in basketball--for giving him the opportunity to play at Indiana University (1976-80) and eventually in the NBA with the Lakers, Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.

Carter became a free agent last Aug. 16 when the Knicks decided not to negotiate a new contract and go with younger players.

But in his five seasons, Carter made his mark, including scoring 42 points in a game three times and setting the NBA record for most points in an overtime period--14 against the Celtics in Boston in 1984.

From there, Carter was set to become a graduate assistant at the University of Dayton--arranged by Indiana’s Bobby Knight--when the Middletown job became available.

For Carter, giving something back to his high school community seemed like a good way to repay it for all the opportunities it had generated for him. “Middletown is still a great basketball town,” said Carter, whose brother, Cris, is the starting flanker at Ohio State. “The Middletown football team could go 10-0, but if the basketball team doesn’t win, people wouldn’t be satisfied.”

Having grown up in Middletown, a city of 45,000 about 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati, Carter is especially attuned to how economic problems have hit the city and how the high school basketball team can do wonders for the town’s morale.

“You see,” Carter said, “Middletown is a steel town, a one-company town, but the company has been down on its luck and people have been laid off, (academic and athletic) budgets have dwindled, and that affects people’s spirits.”

Carter has a degree in business administration from Indiana and is putting it to work.

“The first order of business for us has been to establish a nonprofit corporation to raise funds for our (basketball) programs,” Carter said. “Our goal is to raise $50,000, invest it, use the interest to fund the programs without touching the principal.

“So far, we’ve had $20,000 in commitments from various members of the community. In the old days, the steel company could’ve just written a check for the $50,000, but not anymore. Now we have to raise the money ourselves, become fiscally independent, to take the pressure off of the Board of Education having to fund us.”

Middletown is a school steeped in basketball tradition--the Middies have won seven state titles, made the finals eight other times and list Jerry Lucas among their alumni--but it’s easy to see why it hired an untested young coach such as Carter.

He says he is ready to tackle difficult problems.

“One of the conditions of my taking the job was being able to give my players urine tests (for drugs),” Carter said. “I’ll probably get sued for it, but I’ve got to know if they’ve got problems before they develop into bigger problems.”

Carter also has scheduled a game with longtime Middletown rival Canton McKinley, another state power that Middletown hasn’t scheduled in more than 20 years. At Canton, too.

So even if Middletown goes 0-22 this season--unlikely, since it is coming off an 11-11 record, one that got the previous coach fired--it seems that Carter will establish a legacy that will pay off for years to come should he meet his $50,000 endowment goal.

Said El Toro’s Travers: “Butch has brought in some quality guest speakers (through the years). We’ve had Norm Nixon at the camp three times, plus we’ve had had Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis, Isiah Thomas, Brad Holland, Mike Woodson, Ray Tolbert, people like that.”

Travers even speaks of seeing Carter bringing Middletown out for a tournament or series of games in this area.

But by next week, Carter will be back in Middletown, focusing on his program.

“If we developed a winning program again,” Carter said, savoring the notion, “my hometown would just bubble.”