Pepper Butler wanted her ailing father to watch her receive her college degree.

She already knew her mother wouldn’t be there — she had died of cancer in January.

The senior softball player from Delray Beach, Fla., got her wish for her father March 19 when she received her degree in recreational management in a ceremony held before the Mountaineers’ game against visiting Troy at Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium.

The ceremony was held so that Butler’s father, William Butler, could see his daughter graduate.

William Butler has stage 4 cancer and it is not known if he would be able to watch Butler walk with the class of 2016 during regular graduation ceremonies in May.
Butler’s mother, Charlene Resnick, did not get that chance. She died of stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in January.

Arrangements were made to award Pepper Butler her degree March 19. The rain that was expected to fall during the afternoon waited at least two hours after Butler had her degree and the Mountaineers’ game with Troy was well under way.

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Butler appreciated the gesture made by the university.

“That is very cool, because I know my mom wanted me to finish my degree,” Butler said after the game. “Since my dad came up here he wanted to actually see me get my degree. They worked out this whole thing so that I could get my degree so my dad could see it and he could tell my mom when he goes to heaven.”

Butler has leaned on her softball family at Appalachian State to get her through the hard times.

“It’s been a very tough year,” Butler said. “It’s a lot of adversity for me. You just deal with it the best that you can. I have a great support system to help me deal with it. My teammates have been really supportive through everything this year. They have been there for me. They have always had my back and I have theirs. It’s a give-and- take kind of thing.”

That comes as no surprise to Appalachian State softball coach Janice Savage, who said the Mountaineers are a close-knit team that gets along well.
Savage said the team was not about to let Butler face what was going on in her life alone.

“We have a great group of girls and I’m very lucky,” Savage said. “Our team is very supportive. We preach family here at App and we truly believe in that. For us, we feel like we are Pepper’s family and we are each other’s family, so I think our girls have done a great job showing Pepper she is not alone.”

Butler has not let her personal life interfere with her performance on the softball field. The Mountaineers’ centerfielder is hitting just .208, but she has also rapped four home runs, four doubles and has 15 RBIs.

Butler belted a three-run home run in the Mountaineers’ 25-19 slugfest loss to Troy on March 19. Her home run was the big play in a seven-inning rally that saw the Mountaineers close to 16-15 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Butler said that despite the Mountaineers’ struggles this year — they are 6-23 this season — the softball field has been her sanctuary this season.

“Softball for me is my outlet for everything,” Butler said. “It’s my escape from the world, from what everything is going around me. It feels good to be out here.”

Softball was Butler’s game at Boca Raton Community High School where she hit .473 and hit six home runs her senior season. That season was on the heels of her junior year when she hit .485 and five home runs.

But she also played a different sport in high school, as Butler was a member of her school’s bowling team. She was actually named honorable mention all-conference in bowling for her high school team, and bowled against her current softball teammate Ally Walters’s school in the state playoffs.

Butler’s best score was a 198 and had a teammate who bowled a perfect 300.

“I guess it’s kind of a Florida thing, because Ally Walters — her high school had a bowling team, too — we played against her team in states. It was fun,” Butler said.
Softball and bowling play into her major of recreational management. Butler, who also minored in health promotion, would like to run a softball complex, but also knows that she will have to pay her dues working with a parks and recreational department after graduation.

She enjoyed serving an internship with the Asheville Parks and Recreation Department to get a taste of what life is like at a recreation office.

“My ultimate goal is to be head of a parks department, but more of a softball complex,” Butler said. “For now, I’ll work for a municipal parks and recreation department and work on programs for the youth.”

Savage has no doubts that Butler will do well in her post-softball career.

“She will graduate in May, and she’s a great kid,” Savage said. “Even last semester after everything she’s gone through, she wound up with phenomenal grades. Pepper’s going to do very well, not only here in softball, but in the real world of getting a job and being a good person.

“I hope we get more people here like Pepper Butler.”

Written by Steve Behr