Here’s why Brian Hales is returning as Butler High’s football coach
Eight days ago, Glenwood Ferebee resigned as head football coach at Butler High School, one of the region’s best football powerhouses.
Since the school opened in 1997, Butler has had only two losing seasons and won three state championships. The first losing season was in 1997. The last one came last fall, when Butler started 0-4 and finished 4-7.
Ferebee, who won two state titles at Chambers and built a national power, couldn’t replicate his success in Matthews. And the coach Ferebee replaced, Brian Hales, started coaching the team in the interim, initially intending only to work with the team until a permanent coach was found.
But the more Hales, 51, thought about it, the more he thought he should go back and be a full-time coach again. on Friday, the school made it official. Hales — who never stopped teaching at Butler — will back for his 14th season this fall as head coach after missing one year.
“The biggest factor, really, is time,” Hales said. “With it being so close to the end of the year, trying to bring in another coach that, No. 1, would be able to get a teaching spot in the building would be very difficult, and to try and implement something (football-wise) would be hard, too. And just looking at all those factors, I thought (the school administration) would be setting themselves up for failure. So I thought it was in the best interest of everybody for me to step back in.”
Hales said he and Butler principal Yolanda Blakeney had several conversations this week and after each one, he said he felt himself getting closer and closer to committing.
“She asked if I would consider” coming back as a full-time coach, Hales said. “Initially I said no, I don’t want to do that any more. But the more I looked it and took a step back to evaluate the whole picture. I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Hales — who has a 131-34 record at Butler — spoke exclusively to The Observer about his return Friday afternoon. His answers are lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Q. How much did you miss it last year?
BH: Of course you miss it, but a lot of the aspects I didn’t miss and there were a lot of times when I was coaching that those things overshadowed the things you do enjoy. That made it a much more difficult job. This time around, I know things will be done differently, in terms of responsibilities with the staff and me being more disciplined with a work-life balance. I’m just like everybody else who does this job. We work too much, and don’t take enough time for ourselves and don’t take care of ourselves. Not everybody, but the vast majority. So I need to be more disciplined with stuff like that.
Q. So this all happened pretty fast, huh?
BH: I met with (the team) last Friday morning and told them that I would be taking them through the rest of the spring. I started with them on Monday and we’ve been working with this all week. And eight or nine guys from my last (coaching) staff were out there with us. I called a couple, and this one texted that one, and I think we had the same group chat we used to use. Yeah, it happened pretty fast.
Q. How much has changed with the team in the year you were gone?
BH: I’ve got to learn these guys. New kids have come in and the kids are different than when I last coached. Those sophomores will be seniors. They’ve matured emotionally and physically and last week was really just about getting them out and moving out and to start evaluating them.
Q. How much did it hurt to watch Butler suffer through a losing season last fall?
BH: Yeah, it was tough. I’m not going to be dishonest about it. I felt extremely guilty at times, and even today, the hardest part for me is how bad I feel for the guys who are graduating in a couple of weeks. Now they hear this news (of Hales returning). I’ve been trying to talk to them and explain, and say, ‘This wasn’t the plan.’ It wasn’t that I was trying to get away from them. Circumstances happen. Things change, and sometimes you’ve got to to do what you’ve got to do.
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Q. You know what a winning football team looks like. Tell me what you saw when you watched Butler working out this week.
BH: I see a team that’s ready to compete. I see a team that’s hungry and a team that’s just dying to be coached, and pushed. And that’s exciting. That’s all any of us wants. There’s good football players here, and I’m confident in my coaching staff and the guys around them.
We’re going to get better fast.
This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Here’s why Brian Hales is returning as Butler High’s football coach."
