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Homecoming At The Lake
Those cutting sounds heard in Walled Lake this week signaled the return to town of the MHSAA Basketball Butcher aka Denny Butcher after a three-year absence. Butcher, formerly head boys cage coach at Walled Lake Central, was hired to fill the same role at Walled Lake Western Wednesday night.
He replaces Chip Lutz, who led the Warriors to a gaudy 21-2 record, a share of the KLAA Northern Division crown and the program’s first-ever overall KLAA championship, in his lone year on the sidelines during the 2014-15 campaign.
A master motivator and tactician with a whistle around his neck and a clipboard in his hands, Butcher comes back home to the Oakland County high school hoop scene following a three-year stint on the bench in Livingston County at Hartland. Spending nearly a decade at WLC in 2000s and early 2010s – his final Vikings club snagged a Class A district trophy – he is the son of former Detroit Pistons guard Adonis Butcher and starred on the hardwood as a prepster himself for the Lakeland Eagles. His other previous endeavors manning a bench include head-coaching gigs at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Ortonville Brandon. In 1994, Butcher’s OLSM club lost at the buzzer in the Class C state championship game.
The 2016 WL Western Warriors will be paced by junior wings Delano Smith and Cody White, standout underclassmen used in a reserve capacity last winter.
