Women’s Basketball: 2021 Season Preview

Coming off back-to-back conference and Region VI titles the past two seasons, the Butler women's basketball team is primed and ready to get this year underway.

Led by head coach Mike Helmer in his 13^th year, the Grizzlies are 274-113 during Helmers tenure and 53-13 in the past two seasons. He is now in his ninth season with assistant coach Abby Fawcett at his side. A former player of Helmer's now coach, Fawcett has played a major role in the success of this program.

What seems like an eternity but just a season ago, the Butler women won the KJCCC Eastern conference for the second straight year finishing 15-5 in conference play. Also, for the second straight year advanced to the NJCAA National Tournament moving through the Region VI tournament with wins over Neosho, Seward and Barton to become Region VI Champions.

The Grizzlies were set to take on Salt Lake Community College on Tuesday, March 17 but COVID-19 ended up forcing the National Tournament to postpone until April and just a few days later cancel the entire tournament.

"After missing out on the tournament last year, we are highly motivated to get back to that position," said Helmer. "I think the players who are back who didn't get that chance and the coaches are very motivated to make it back."

With the season being pushed to a January start instead of a regular November start, the Grizzlies have had to make a number of changes and adapt to an entirely different looking year. 

"We have had to accept that everything is a day-to-day process," explained Helmer. "Obviously wearing masks, sanitizing everything and doing the best we can to social distance has now been engrained into our program but also spending a lot of time with our kids from a mental standpoint as this has been a challenging year for everyone."

With the season being shortened, the normal 30-game schedule has been cut down to 22-allowable games during the regular season. The Grizzlies will open up at home against Tabor College JV on Thursday, January 21 at 5:30pm making it 324 days from the last time they suited up for a game.

"We just can't wait to put on a jersey and play a game," exclaimed Helmer. "Just being able to play and see the excitement on the kid's face when we get to play for the first time is what I am most looking forward to this year."

Butler returns five from last year's championship roster. Tamara Nard has returned for her sophomore campaign after a huge freshman season. Nard led the Grizzlies in scoring with 16.2 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game. She also led in FG% shooting 58.1 from the floor on the year. Nard really hit her offensive stride late in the season as she scored 20+ points in six of her last seven games. 

In just one season, Nard put together a resume many try to accomplish in four years racking up a number of awards on the season and becoming a household name for many. She was named NJCAA Honorable Mention All-American, KJCCC Freshman of the Year, KJCCC First-Team, Region VI First-Team and was named to the NJCAA WBCA All-Star Team and the Region VI Tournament All-Star team.

Carissa Beck is another one who coach Helmer expects to lead the Grizzlies this season. Beck played in all 33 games last season and started five. She averaged 6.0 points per game shooting nearly 41% from three. She had a season high 21 points against Bethany College on November 5 where she went 5-7 from deep. Beck also knocked down two three pointers in the Region VI Championship game helping the Grizzlies to victory over Barton.

Maddie Livingston, Miranda Givens and Riley Hett round out the list of returns from last year's championship team. Livingston played in all 33 games with one start and averaged 1.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. Givens saw action in 31 games as a freshman and averaged 0.9 points per game and 1.8 rebounds a game. Riley Hett suffered a wrist injury keeping her on the bench in the middle part of the season. She did play in 21 games with one start. She averaged 1.3 rebounds and 0.8 points per game this past year.

On top of the five returners, Helmer said "This is the most excited I have been about an incoming class in a long time."

The Grizzlies signed a mixture of college transfers and freshman totaling eight players to complete the 13-player roster.

"We really like our incoming class and are expecting big things from each of them," said Helmer. "They all have the potential to very good and will complement our returners very well.

With back-to-back conference and Region titles, one would think it easy to carry that momentum into the season, but this year has been flipped all around.

"So much has happened between last year and this year I am not sure it is possible to really carry that momentum from last March into this season almost a year later," said Helmer. "What we can continue to do is build on all the previous year's success and continue to focus on us."

COVID had made a significant amount of change in everyone's life with students and athletes not being immune from the changes.

"It has been extremely hard," mentioned Helmer. "The players are mentally struggling with everything that they have had to change and adapt to along with all the uncertainty that goes along with it. I am proud of the way we handled the fall semester in regard to health and safety and keeping our players as safe as possible and we are looking forward to some form of normalcy as we move into the spring."

Although the spring semester had many down moments, one of the highlights came in May when coach Helmer announced the hiring of former Grizzly All-American and recent UMKC standout and graduate Ericka Mattingly. To see Ericka's full bio click HERE.

Coach Helmer had this to say about his recent hire- "We are super excited to have Ericka back at Butler. She's one of the best players in program history and knows the program very well. She brings great leadership, toughness and is a coach that can relate very well with the players. We are fortunate to have her part of this program and at Butler."

Over the last 10 months it has become apparently obvious how quickly something can get taken away from you. Not taking for granted some of the little things that just less than a year ago we might not have thought twice about. 

"We are just going to enjoy each moment and appreciate each day we get," said Helmer, "and we are going to do so with unbelievable effort."

When asked what a successful year looks like for the Butler Women's Basketball program coach Helmer commented- "If we get to play and our kids are mentally happy, that will be a success in our book."