This is another in a short series about my former pro softball players I know who have become coaches.
Kristen Butler was a four-year starter for the University of Florida from 2003-06. Mostly a catcher, she was the 2006 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. She still holds season records for most runners picked off (8) and runners caught stealing (22), and the career record for most runners caught stealing (61).
Kristen started her pro career with the Akron Racers of National Pro Fastpitch. She was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. She also played for Denso in Japan, where she was the first player to hit three home runs in a game. After joining the Chicago Bandits, she helped them to the 2015 NPF title, where she
broke the league's all-time records in both home runs and RBIs.
Kristen retired after the 2015 season, but had already started her coaching career as an assistant with Florida in 2007. After a couple other assistant coaching stints, she was named Head Coach at Toledo in 2015.After the 2018 season she took the helm at Rutgers.
I was a bit surprised when I saw her at Northwestern in 2019, five years after I had last seen her, she remembered me right away. I probably shouldn't have been surprise, because she was always very kind to the Johngy's Beat team when we were at the ballpark. My interviews with Kristen are in the Chicago Bandits playlist in the right column.
For more info on Kristen and the Scarlet Knights, go to scarletknights.com. Check back here for a few more in this series.
Kristen Butler and me in Evanston, IL-Spring 2019.
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