Lutheran South News
Savannah Butterfield hopes to close Lutheran South career in style with strong postseason
Savannah Butterfield was dead set against the idea right from the start.
The Lutheran South point guard had no interest in attending a basketball camp last June at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska.
Instead, she felt like hanging around with friends and working a few of her favorite gigs as a babysitter were much more enticing options.
Yet her father, Jonathan, believed the trip would possibly give his daughter another option come time to choose a college.
“I was a little bit annoyed that my dad was going to make me miss out on the things I wanted to do here,” Butterfield recalled. “Going to Nebraska for three days didn’t seem like a lot of fun.”
In the end, dad knew best.
Butterfield fell in love with the campus, coaches and players just hours after she arrived at the NAIA school.
It didn’t take her long to realize Concordia would be her college home down the road.
“He was right all along, but I don’t want him to know that,” Butterfield said.
“He was right all along, but I don’t want him to know that,” Butterfield said.
Butterfield is in the middle of some unfinished business before heading off to college.
The 6-footer is closing out her high school career in style by helping the Lancers to another banner campaign.
Lutheran South carries a 19-7 mark into the Class 4 District 4 Tournament at Affton this week. It will open play against Notre Dame (11-15) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with a possible berth against Ursuline Academy in the championship game at 6 p.m. Friday.
Butterfield leads the Lancers in scoring at 16.3 points per game and is 41 points shy of becoming the 12th player in program history to pass the 1,000-point plateau, according to veteran coach Ben Ealick.
A deft ballhandler and playmaker, Butterfield missed six games due to a high ankle sprain earlier this year and returned just in time for a post-Christmas trip to a tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona. She came back with a vengeance, totaling 82 points over three games in the Cactus Jam including a career-high 31-point effort Dec. 28 in a win over on San Marino, California.
Butterfield, who is shooting a blistering 51.9 percent from the field, has scored in double figures in 19 successive games.
“Over the last two years, she’s spent thousands of hours in the gym,” Ealick said. “It shows. She keeps getting better and better and her ceiling is really high.”
That strong workout regimen can also be attributed to Jonathan, who is the head of school at Lutheran South.
“One of the advantages of having your dad (in charge) is that I can get the keys to the gym anytime I want to,” Butterfield said.
Once again, dad comes to the rescue.
Butterfield sees the irony in the fact that a trip she never wanted to make turned out to be the biggest road jaunt of her life.
“I didn’t want to go and I ended up finding my college,” she said.
Butterfield’s best friend and senior teammate Chloe Eggerding also fondly remembers Butterfield balking about the trip to Concordia.
“I heard so many complaints from her that she had to go eight hours to Nebraska and how she didn’t think she’d like this tiny school in the middle of nowhere,” Eggerding said. “I had a feeling she might like it. But she never did — until she got there.”
Butterfield had all but decided on attending Azusa Pacific, an NAIA school in Azusa, California.
“I told my parents I wanted to go somewhere where it’s warm and that was my choice,” Butterfield said.
That sudden change in direction is what she now calls the best decision of her life.
Butterfield began playing organized basketball in kindergarten and always had a passion for the game. She was never particularly tall before receiving a monster six-inch growth spurt as a freshman.
But even now, she bristles at the thought of being a 6-footer.
“For some reason, she just doesn’t like it,” Eggerding said.
Added Jonathan, “She likes to joke that she’s 5-foot-12.”
Butterfield spent her entire sophomore season coming off the bench. She still managed to average 7.4 points per game and logged about as many minutes as some of the starters.
Yet the sixth man tag did not sit well with her.
So Butterfield worked diligently in the offseason prior to her junior season to force her way into the starting lineup.
Butterfield sits in ninth place on the school’s all-time assists list. She is 10th in career steals.
The Lancers are 53-30 in the three years with Butterfield as a regular contributor.
Now, she would like nothing better than to close out an already stellar career with a strong postseason run.
“I think that we’re ready,” Butterfield said. “Everything is going well for us.”
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