Satellite High hires ex-Holy Trinity coach Doug Butler

Doug Butler took about 16 days to find a new job.

The dismissed Holy Trinity cross country and track and field coach, let go by his former school on Nov. 25, was hired by Satellite on Friday. Scorpions athletic director Linda Anderson summed up the decision: "In a nutshell, Butler and Satellite are a good fit."

"Being a runner myself, I've known Doug for years," Anderson said. "He's an icon in the community and has had a ton of success."

Butler coached teams to 20 state championships during 15 years at Holy Trinity. School officials did not specify the reasons for his dismissal, 10 days after the Tigers boys and girls teams each won their eighth state championship. In addition to those 16 cross country titles, his track and field teams won four.

Butler will also teach at his new school when he starts in January.

"There are some good kids there. They trained with us during the summer, and I'm excited about working with them," Butler said. "The program was a great cross country program when the Shivers and Sterns were there, and I'm looking forward to getting that back."

Satellite's last team championship in cross country came in 2007, when the girls won their third consecutive Class 3A title in Dade City under Peter Blount. Ashley Shiver won individual cross country titles in 2007 and '08. The school did not have enough interested girls to field a complete team this past season.

"We've got the athletes," Anderson said. "We need to build the program up, especially the girls."

Butler has collaborated with Scorps track and field coach Jason Carter of Satellite and current head football coach Mark Carstens in the past. Both Carter and Butler will run the outdoor season. Carter's expertise is in field events.

"We've had a good relationship over the last few years and have a lot of respect for each other," Carter said. "This could be a pretty cool little era for track and field at Satellite."

Contact McCallum at 321-242-3698 or bmccallum@floridatoday.com. Follow him at www.facebook.com/321preps or on Twitter @321preps.