If Les Schwab Bowl comes down to a field goal, ‘Mr. Clutch’ Kadyn Butcher of Jesuit will be ready

“I love the pressure. I just want to chill out and do my thing.”

By Dan Brood 

Pressure? 

Kadyn Butcher doesn’t care about pressure.

Whether he’s lining up a game-winning field goal or standing on the starting blocks, getting ready to dive into the water in state-meet competition, the Jesuit senior-to-be welcomes the challenge.

“I love the pressure,” Butcher said during Team Columbia’s practice session Tuesday. “I just want to chill out and do my thing.”

Butcher’s “thing” this week is serving as Team Columbia’s kicker/punter at the Les Schwab Bowl, a high school football all-star game featuring many of the top players from around the state, which will be played Saturday at Linfield University in McMinnville.

“Oh man, the experience is really huge, being with these guys, meeting new people,” Butcher said of being selected to play in the contest. “It’s nice to be part of a team again, a new team, not just Jesuit. Building friendships is the main thing.”

Building friendships and excelling in athletics.

Early on for Butcher, that mainly was about swimming. That makes sense — after all, his father, Bryan Butcher, is the head coach of the Jesuit swim team. But there’s even more that led Kadyn Butcher to the pool.

“My mom (Jennifer Butcher) was a Paralympic swimmer (she won bronze medals at the 2000 and 2004 Paralympic Games),” he said. “I’ve been swimming my entire life, on a club team. I quit because I wanted to play football. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do in football, until I started kicking, because I played soccer for so long.”

Butcher might have stopped swimming for a club team, but this past winter season, he helped the Crusaders boys win the Class 6A state team championship. At the state meet, Butcher finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, he was seventh in the 100 backstroke, he swam a leg for the Crusaders 200 medley relay team, which finished second, and he swam on the 200 freestyle relay team, which placed third.

In addition to swimming, Butcher excelled on the soccer pitch — which might have been a path to football.

“I played soccer for eight years, and I really enjoyed soccer,” he said. “But soccer and football are in the same season in Oregon, so I said, ‘I’ve got to decide.’ I thought football might be my thing, so I started kicking. I started building up, getting better and better, and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

And he’s done it well.

As a junior, he was an all-Metro League second-team pick at kicker and punter. He went 4 of 6 on field goal attempts, including a 49-yard boot in a state playoff win over Tigard.

This fall, as a senior, Butcher will be part of a group of standout kickers around the state.

“It’s awesome and pretty amazing,” he said. “I know a lot of the guys, like (West Linn’s) Gage Huryck, (Mountain View’s) Connor Calvert, they’re all D-I guys. It’s pretty cool to train with them, meet up with them and talk. It’s cool to be part of a group of kickers like that.”

Before next season, Butcher is focused on helping Team Columbia get a win over Team Willamette in Saturday’s game.

“Oh, it’s huge. We’ve got a lot of bragging rights, and we’ve got a trophy to go for,” he said. “We’re out here to compete, that’s the main thing, and get the ‘dub.’ We’ve been putting a lot of work in.”

And what if the game comes down to a last-second field goal attempt?

“I’d love it, man,” Butcher said with a smile. “That would be pretty awesome.”

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Proceeds from this year’s Les Schwab Bowl, presented by Express Employment Professionals, will benefit the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association general scholarship fund, the Brayden Bafaro Scholarship Fund, and various youth charities.

This is the 75th game in the series, but just the second that won’t be North vs. South. Instead, players were drafted by the Team Columbia coaching staff, with head coach Steve Pyne from Central Catholic, and by the Team Willamette coaching staff, with head coach Josh Line from Sheldon. In last year’s game, the first under this format, Team Columbia posted a 28-9 win over Team Willamette.

Gates will open at 3 p.m. Saturday, with food carts on site. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m.

Tickets for the game can be purchased at lesschwabbowl.com/tickets. The game can also be streamed online, at a cost of $10, at lesschwabbowl.com.