Sports

Ex-Americus star hired as coach of Arizona women’s hoops team

• Niya Butts, a former star for what was then known as Americus High School, is hired as the head coach of Arizona after paying her dues during the past decade.

Scott Chancey

TUCSON, Ariz. — Americus native Niya Butts was part of two national championship women’s basketball teams as a player at Tennessee.

On Thursday, she was given the opportunity to possibly coach one in the future.

Butts, who had been an assistant during the past five seasons at Kentucky, was hired at Arizona, replacing 17-year Lady Wildcats coach Joan Bonvicini, who was recently fired.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be the head coach at Arizona,” Butts said on the university’s Web site. “This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for.

Arizona is a great place, and I am looking forward to taking the Wildcats to the next level.”

Americus-Sumter coach Evelyn Wright, who coached Butts at what then was known as Americus High School, was beside herself after learning of the news from The Herald late Thursday.

“Oh my God! All right!,” she exclaimed. “That’s a step up for her. When she played for me, she was a great all-around player, and at Tennessee she was used more of a defensive player. She was a very coachable person for me, and I know with her being a coach, she has the talent and patience to work with them all. She’ll be a great coach.”

After graduating from Americus High School in the mid-1990s, Butts was part of Tennessee’s 1997 and ’98 national championship teams, the latter of which finished undefeated.

She then became an assistant at Tennessee Tech and Michigan State before joining Kentucky when ex-UT assistant Mickie DeMoss brought her along when she was hired as Kentucky’s head coach.

“Niya is certainly one of the game’s up and coming young coaches in the country,” DeMoss said on Arizona’s Web site. “I’ve known her since the 10^th grade when I recruited her as a player to Tennessee. I had the opportunity to hire her at Kentucky, and she hit the road running, making a huge difference to that program, notably in recruiting. She is a driven young lady, very mature and very focused. Arizona is very fortunate to have her.”

And of course, what round of accolades would be complete without a comment from her college coach, Pat Summitt, whose defending national champion Lady Volunteers play in Tampa, Fla., in Sunday’s national semifinals against Louisiana State.

Back to today's Sports>>