After Shaky Start, Butler Becomes Defensive Back on Solid Footing : Early Awkwardness Gives Way to Self-Assuredness of Top Division I Prospect

It’s a preseason practice two years ago, and a wide grin creases the face of Royal High football Coach Gene Uebelhardt as he watches his players toil under a merciless sun.

A tall, scrawny sophomore defensive back has caught Uebelhardt’s eye. The kid looks about as comfortable in pads and a helmet as a newborn colt learning to walk, but that does not temper Uebelhardt’s glee.

As practice wears on, 15-year-old Rommel Butler is beaten often by Highlander receivers, winds up out of position on several occasions, misses tackles and generally resembles someone who has never watched a football game, let alone play in one. Still, Uebelhardt sports the satisfied look some get when they muse: “I know something you don’t.”

“He was very, very raw back then, but you could see he had tremendous athletic ability,” Uebelhardt said. “You could just see he was going to be a great one.”

Butler did not disappoint.

Uebelhardt inserted Butler in the starting lineup during the opening game of his sophomore season. The next time he fails to start will be the first.

Today, Butler (6-foot-1, 185 pounds) is arguably the area’s top defensive back, and he will have further opportunity to prove it tonight when visiting Royal meets Newbury Park in a Marmonte League game. Kickoff is 7:30.

Butler is a team leader and a hot NCAA Division I prospect despite having played organized football for less than three full seasons. Not bad for someone who wanted nothing to do with the sport, or the community of Simi Valley, for that matter.

“He has all the special tools you look for in a defensive back,” one assistant coach at a Division I program said of Butler. “He’s definitely a big-time prospect.”

Said Butler: “I owe football a lot. I never really wanted to play it, but now that I have I can’t think of how things would have been if I didn’t.”

Butler, 17, used to be happiest on the hardwood.

He would spend hours on basketball courts in youth recreational leagues with friends while growing up in tough east Oakland. A point guard, Butler dreamed of three-point shots and no-look bounce passes--not full-speed collisions with guys twice his size.

Had everything fallen into place the way he planned, Butler would have played high school basketball in Oakland with his buddies from the neighborhood. But his mother had other ideas.

Shirley Stanley wanted her children out of the dangerous area in which they lived. So during the summer before Butler entered ninth grade, Stanley took Butler and his younger sister, T’aira Stanley, and left Oakland for Simi Valley. (Butler uses his mother’s maiden name because his parents were not married when he was born. His father, Terry, still resides in Oakland.)

The move did not sit well with Butler.

“He kept telling me, ‘Mama, I’m not going,’ ” Stanley said. “He didn’t enjoy himself much that whole first year.”

That’s why Stanley’s eyes opened wide with confusion when Butler returned home one day during his first week at Royal and asked, “Mama, are you coming to my football game tonight?”

Stanley was not aware of Butler’s interest in football. She always had heard him talk about basketball. Where did this football thing come from?

Butler told Stanley that two of his physical education teachers at the junior high he attended in Simi Valley encouraged him to try out for the football team when he enrolled in Royal the following year. Though reluctant, Butler decided to give it a shot. To his surprise, he liked it--a lot.

“I never wanted to play because I thought it was too dangerous. . . . tackling and getting hit and everything,” Butler said. “But it really wasn’t all that bad.”

It was for Stanley.

The thought of all those big, strong boys running into and falling on her child gave her chills.

“I was shaking like a leaf during that first game,” she said. “I ran on the field and hugged and kissed him as soon as the game was over. I know everyone must have thought I was crazy.

“It’s still tough for me to watch, but I’m happy because football helped him make friends and enjoy living here.”

Butler was an instant hit.

He intercepted five passes and was an integral part of the Highlanders’ league championship team as a sophomore. He also played basketball on the junior varsity that season but has since given up the sport to concentrate on football, believing that his road to college is paved with hash marks not free-throw lines.

As a junior, Butler led the team with four interceptions and was named all-league and All-Ventura County by The Times. Butler, who has three interceptions this season, was on at least one preseason All-American list.

He covers 40 yards in 4.5 seconds and can bench-press 250 pounds. Dozens of schools--including all those in the Pacific 10 Conference and Nebraska and Penn State--are pursuing him.

Uebelhardt compares Butler favorably with former Highlander standout Tim Ross, now a redshirt sophomore at Colorado.

“Tim is the best one we’ve had here and Rommel is right there with him,” Uebelhardt said. “His pass defense is incredible.”

Said Dick Lascola of Scouting Evaluation Assn.: “He’s instinctive and he gets to the ball. He plays tight in man coverage because he can turn and run.”

Butler’s head has not become swollen despite the constant praise.

“He knows he’s good, but he doesn’t try to act like a star,” said Bryan Fernandez, Butler’s friend since junior high and a fellow senior Royal defensive back. “He really likes to help the younger (defensive backs), like older guys helped us when we were sophomores.”

Butler’s biggest problem on the football field is boredom. His reputation deters many teams from passing in his direction. Inactivity, however, is not something he will have to deal with tonight against No. 1-ranked Newbury Park and its vaunted passing attack led by quarterback Keith Smith.

Butler is eager to avenge last season’s 14-9 loss to the Panthers. Moreover, he is excited about his final individual battle with Leodes Van Buren, the state’s all-time leading receiver.

“Van Buren is as good as he says he is, but I think I’m good too,” Butler said. “I’m going to let my play do all of my talking.”

Butler is unsure of his college choice, but he probably will stay on the West Coast because he doesn’t want to stray too far from home.

“He’s very protective of me and his sister,” Stanley said. “He might be a big football player, but he’s still a mama’s boy at heart.”