Hood College hired a coach with over a decade of successful Division I coaching experience to lead its women's basketball program beginning in fall 2007. Butler also took over as head coach of the men's and women's tennis teams in January 2008.

Jay Butler, whose experience includes head coaching stints at Columbia University, St. Mary's College of Maryland and Brown University, takes over for Tracey Kelley-Franklin, who resigned her position in July to take a position at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick.

Butler's coaching resume includes tenures at a pair of Ivy League institutions and one of Hood's current conference rivals. From 1996-2004, he coached at Columbia University in New York City and established a 150 percent improvement in the program's win-loss record during his eight years. The winningest coach in Columbia women's basketball history, he inherited a program that won a combined six games in the three years prior to his arrival. The Lions established single-season records for victories during the 2001-02 and 2003-04 seasons, which remain program standards today. For five consecutive seasons, Columbia led the Ivy League in all defensive statistical categories, including defensive field-goal percentage and points allowed. Additionally, his 2002-03 squad led the league in free-throw percentage (.739). His student-athletes also excelled in the classroom as the program fashioned a 100 percent graduation rate.

Prior to Columbia, Butler served as head coach at Capital Athletic Conference rival St. Mary's College of Maryland from 1994-96. Inheriting a struggling program which, similar to Columbia, won six games the year prior to his arrival, Butler's charges showed a 14-32 record, another significant improvement during a rebuilding period for the Seahawks.

Butler also spent six years in the early 1990s as an assistant women's basketball coach at Brown University in Providence, R.I. The Bears compiled an overall record of 91-41 and won three consecutive Ivy League championships from 1992-94. With Butler's assistance, Brown also secured the program's first-ever automatic berth to the NCAA tournament in 1994.

Butler has landed 11 recruits on various conference all-rookie squads and has developed numerous all-conference performers.

Since 2005, Butler has served as the coaches ministry director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Ruston, La., during which time he has ministered to coaches and led bible study groups for various colleges, high schools and junior high schools in five parrishes (counties) across the region.

Butler is a 1983 graduate of Castleton State College in Castleton, Vt. He was a three-sport athlete in basketball, cross country and tennis and was inducted into the Castleton Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997. Butler also earned a master's degree credit in exercise physiology from the University of Maryland College Park in 1996.

"We are thrilled that Jay Butler has joined the Hood College Athletics family," said director of athletics Gib Romaine. "We had an excellent pool of candidates and Jay stood out as an exemplary leader and mentor. As the women's basketball program begins its inaugural season in the Capital Athletic Conference, I am confident that Jay has the leadership ability and the drive to take this program to the next level."

"I truly believe that something good is happening at Hood," said Butler, who becomes the fourth head coach in the history of the Blazer women's basketball program. "I have always been associated with and attracted to small liberal arts colleges. Hood has a great reputation and a great future, and that stems from the outstanding leadership I witnessed on this campus, from President Ron Volpe to Dean of Students Olivia White to Gib. I am excited to be a part of that and will do everything I can to put these players in the best possible environment to succeed."

Butler inherited a Hood squad which posted a 5-18 record in 2006-07 and finished fifth in the Atlantic Women's Colleges Conference with a mark of 4-6. In 2007-08, Hood's inaugural season in the Capital Athletic Conference, Butler and the Blazers went 5-20 and 3-13 in the league. Hood's first CAC victory came Dec. 6, 2007, against Gallaudet University. Last season, the Blazers showed a record of 4-21 and 2-14 in the CAC.