Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008

GIRLS' 4A SOCCER PLAYOFFS | BUTLER AT HOPEWELL, 7 P.M. TODAY

Season of success touched by turmoil

Butler coach balances team with tug of family

LANGSTON WERTZ JR.

lwertz@charlotteobserver.com

MATTHEWS --

On Monday, doctors in Youngstown, Ohio, gave his father 48 hours to live. His mother has had two severe strokes in the past month.

So Thursday night, less than 24 hours before the biggest game of the season, Butler High girls' soccer coach Geoff Huntley went home to take care of his parents.

He knows what could be coming.

Huntley has lost two brothers and a sister to the same disease that is killing his father, who has been hospitalized since February.

But in a season in which he's had immense personal struggle, going back and forth to Youngstown, Huntley might have done his best coaching job.

Butler, whose third-place finish in the Southwestern 4A Conference was its best ever, is 14-5-1 entering tonight's second-round playoff game at Hopewell. The Bulldogs have never been past the second round.

Huntley, who led Providence to the 1997 N.C. 4A championship, said this group of girls is "selfless and special."

He said he loves them. He said he wishes he could be in two places at once.

But there's no tug, he said, like the tug of family.

"My father is my hero," he said. "Seeing him going down like this, becoming weaker and weaker, it hurts. I've seen him do so much in his lifetime for other people. He's just been an example, man, just an example."

Richard Huntley is 82. For the last 25 years of his working career, he was a professor of urban studies at Youngstown State.

He's worked as a city planner in Youngstown, Geoff Huntley said. Richard Huntley helped bring an NAACP chapter to his town and spearheaded a letter-writing campaign that ultimately landed the city a national Urban League office.

He's also had to bury three of his five children.

Sturge-Weber Syndrome, a neurological disorder, has run through the family. It can lead to seizures, glaucoma and other complications.

Geoff Huntley said he and his only surviving sister, Donna -- an actress touring with the successful musical comedy "Menopause" -- do not have the disease or exhibit symptoms.

Huntley said he just wants to be there for his father and his mother, Edith, a former registered nurse, and give them "all the love they've always given me."

But in his next breath, Huntley said it's hard to be away from his team, too.

"Your head is in Ohio and my heart is here (in Charlotte), too," Huntley said. "It's hard to concentrate, but these girls have given so much of themselves this year without crying and whining and all of that. They're so worth it.

"They've had a commitment to each other this year and played their hearts out all year long."

They've also played and practiced without their coach several times.

Assistant Nancy Peterson has taken over when Huntley has gone to Ohio. She'll coach tonight's game.

Butler principal Theresa Hopkins -- whose secretary, Amy Brisley, has two daughters on the soccer team -- said the team and the coach have handled this difficult situation very well.

"It's been the talk of school, and I think Geoff's done a very good job of balancing things," Hopkins said. "He's not been difficult to deal with and he's been able to compartmentalize things. His work ethic is the same and his coaching is as good as ever.

"I think you appreciate things more when you see how fleeting life is. It's been a very good year for all of us, all in all, but it's heightened a little bit by the sense of pathos he's going through. These kids really want to do it for him."

Huntley rattles off his team's accomplishments and speaks about each player on the roster, such girls as leading scorer Hannah Holsclaw, a senior who has 14 goals and six assists, or sophomore Amanda Welsh, who has 10 goals, or sophomore goalie Carly Rives, who has 11 shutouts.

Then he talks again about how much he loves this team and what it has done.

"In the past here, kids would show up and be half-hearted about it," Huntley said. "These guys are coming to me and demanding more of themselves. I don't have to wait around for them.

"They're excited about playing and excited about their roles on the team. They're a dream to coach."

That makes leaving them hard, Huntley said.

But he has to go because there's no tug, he repeats, like the tug of family.