Brad Butterworth steps onto the hardwood, and there’s a mixed reaction.
One fan section began chanting “1998,” in an attempt to mock the year he graduated high school.
“Who let the coach in?”
As a college basketball player, he understands he’s a bit of an anomaly. Still, he sees the same look in players eyes when they guard him.
“Joke’s on them,” Butterworth said on a Monday morning between practice and class. “I graduated in ’97.”
Butterworth is a 39-year old from Lawrenceville, Ga. He’s a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who left one year of college basketball eligibility on the table after playing at Coastal Georgia College.
And now, at 39, he’s a guard for Portland Bible College, a small non-denominational school of just over 400 students based in Northeast Portland.
Portland Bible houses a fledgling program that is being built brick-by-brick through aggressive scheduling and local recruiting. The team roster describes him as a 160-pound freshman, but that hardly encapsulates the Camas resident and father of three.
By his research, he’s the oldest college basketball player in the country from NCAA, NAIA and Portland Bible’s classification, the NCCAA. (The Washington Post recently wrote about a 38-year old college basketball player in Canada. Butterworth had him beat by a few months.)
Recently, he stepped away from the team as a player, due to poor grades compounded by a physically and mentally draining schedule balancing a career along with life as a student-athlete. But that doesn’t change Butterworth’s status as the one-time oldest college basketball player in the country.
And it certainly doesn’t change the reason he ultimately decided to return to basketball.
“I will be able to walk off the playing court completely fine with my performances,” Butterworth said. “But walking away from this particular program or journey is really where I get thankful. I feel like I’m a newfound person. I have a new vigor for the next 39 years of life.”
Initially reluctant
In the months leading up to committing to Portland Bible College, Butterworth was initially reluctant.
His daughter Jaide Butterworth, a senior at Camas High School, is preparing to join the Air Force in July and he wanted to be present during the recruitment process. He enjoyed coaching his sons, Kai Butterworth (14) and Braylen Butterworth (12). Plus, his day job as a regional director at Shoot 360, a national basketball training franchise in Vancouver, was ever-demanding.
“I always had this notion to go back to play basketball at some point, but it was never the right time,” he said.
His wife, Jessica Butterworth, gave him the push of encouragement he needed, he said. (The two met in the Coast Guard while stationed in Antarctica.)
He tried at one point to return to play for Cuesta College, a community college in San Luis Obispo, Calif., but tore his shoulder playing for its summer league team. His shoulder ripped out of the socket, requiring four nurses and a doctor to get it back in place.
He thought, why risk going through something similar?
But ever since leaving Coastal Georgia College with one remaining year of eligibility 17 years ago, Butterworth felt drawn back to the idea of giving his playing days another go.
During pickup games of 3-on-3 at work, Butterworth would hit a shot, and one of his cohorts would chirp “Make that comeback, Butter!”
For Butterworth, it wasn’t a matter of talent.
“Mental maturity-wise I knew there was a place to contribute,” Butterworth said. “Was I going to be the 11th guy on the end of the bench talking in coach’s ear about what I see? I could definitely contribute in that fashion.”
It took convincing from former Battle Ground standout Willie Bratcher, who was joining the team at the same time, and head coach Mike Arnold, who Bratcher played for at Clark College.
Butterworth signed a National Letter of Intent. His family, and Bratcher’s, were in attendance for the first game. The two were admittedly nervous.
“But when Butter hit that first three,” Bratcher said,” I was like, ‘OK, we can do this.'”
Surprise teammate
When he was introduced to the team, it took some players by surprise.
Arnold — who previously coached at Columbia River High School — had informed players that a 39-year-old would be joining. Freshman Riley Anderson assumed he was another coach.
But the team took to his leadership on the floor garnered from 17 years of coaching that included work with Florida State’s basketball program and the Air Force Academy, as well as an assistant coaching stint at Colorado College.
“At first people didn’t know how to respond to it that he was going to be playing a lot,” said freshman Kenese Peneueta, a Heritage graduate who has trained with Butterworth at Shoot 360 since 2015. “But then he grew closer to a lot of the people that didn’t know him coming in. He became a mentor to a few of the players.”
The coaching presence on the floor that Arnold envisioned while recruiting him came to fruition. Younger players appreciated his presence on the floor.
“He’s very methodical,” said Keoni Peneueta, Kenese’s older brother who also plays for Portland Bible College. “He’s able to do things at a slower pace, but with better decision making. He sees the game a lot differently than a lot of these players do. He plays different, but at the same time it works really well for him.”
‘I got the 50-year-old’
Opponents weren’t always briefed on his age before the game.
Kenese recalls checking into a game at the scorer’s table and hearing an opponent yell “I got the 50-year-old.” Anderson said opposing fans would chant “dad” and “grandpa” at him during games.
During the team’s 125-50 loss to Division-I Portland State (which is now 10-3), Butterworth hit a 3-pointer and immediately started talking smack to Vikings standout Deontae North. North, who is averaging 20.3 points per game for PSU (and poured 24 points on Duke), responded by sinking a 3-pointer with Butterworth contesting, and said, “you’re too little, old man.”
After the game, the two shook hands and North inquired on his age. When Butterworth responded, North said, “‘tell your kids I think their old man is a good ball player,” and the two hugged.
“He had a lot of fun with it,” Kenese said.
After the season started, he played more than he anticipated. Against Division-II squad Western Oregon, Butterworth logged 29 minutes and led the team with 12 points.
For Butterworth, it was more than becoming the oldest college basketball player in the country.
Two weeks ago, Butterworth approached Arnold and said after his first round of finals, he would be ineligible for second semester. His course load, on top of a family and career, proved to be too much.
But his goal was always bigger than just making it through the year. If he hadn’t met his wife in Antarctica, he said, his experience at Portland Bible would be the single most significant of his life.
“It’s not about playing college basketball at 39,” he said. “Who cares? It’s a cool story, but the real story is that it’s never too late to change habits. … I wanted to prove that to my kids. If you’re getting deep in your life and you’re not happy with the way things are going, you can make a change.
“That’s what this is about. And I’ve been able to prove that to myself. That’s why after this I can hold my head high. And I hope other people can go ‘it’s never too late to change a habit and do something crazy.'”
Butterworth half-jokingly quipped that he’d like to reach out to the 38-year old college basketball player in Canada.
What would his message be?
“Just keep going,” he said. “Keep taking that next step.”
