Christopher Butash’s life is filled with football, from his time on his squad with Academy at the Lakes, to his extra playing time recreationally with the Lutz Chiefs.
And he loves it. In fact, as long as the 13-year-old is not cooped up inside doing something, he’s happy.
“I love being outside,” Butash said after a recent practice. “I love going to my friend’s house who has an outside basketball court. When it’s basketball season, we play basketball. When it’s football season, we’re out there throwing the football.”
That throwing and catching has helped Butash a lot. As a quarterback for the Chiefs, he scored nine touchdowns this season, seven of them in the air. And that was before he moved to the wide receiver position, where he continues to excel.
And in December, he’ll have a chance to show those skills at a much more regional level through the Offense-Defense Youth All-American Bowl Week activities taking place at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The weeklong event includes a number of instructional camps as well as the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl game that features 88 of the top high school seniors in the country.
Butash joins teammates Jaxson Bless, Nick Testa and Sebastian Bove, all of whom were named All-Americans during a summer camp hosted by Offense-Defense, a South Carolina company that hosts such camps around the country.
Butash’s father, Michael, is a defense attorney in Lutz, while his mother Lisa works at her husband’s office, and spends a lot of time volunteering as well — especially for Christopher’s athletics.
Yet all of them work to make it to the dinner table each night, in what seems to be a dying tradition elsewhere, to share valuable time with each other.
“I’m very proud of my dad for keeping our family in shape,” Christopher Butash said. “My mom has to plan ahead of time for dinner, but she does it, and that keeps us together.”
In fact, Butash said he would like to follow his father’s footsteps and become an attorney as well, but seems more attracted to personal injury law like another football player-turned lawyer, Brad Culpepper.
Where he’ll go to college is a question he’s probably too young to answer. But Butash said he’s working hard not just on the field, but also in the classroom, maintaining an A average at Academy at the Lakes, especially in his favorite class, language arts.
“I need to work hard, because working hard and getting good grades gets you into college to play football, and it helps get you recognized,” Butash said.
Bowl week in Orlando begins Dec. 30 and runs through Jan. 5. It includes plenty of practice sessions as well as parties for New Year’s and awards, as well as autograph signings for some of the standout senior players taking part.
For more information, visit O-D.com.
