According to research published by Higher Education Publications, Inc., only 19.5% of college athletic directors were women in 2018. As the first female athletic director in Milpitas High School history, Joanna Butcher is dedicated to administering MHS’s athletic programs and positively impacting the school. Being a female in a predominantly male profession, Butcher wants to be a positive role model for girls and to show them they can have an impact both on and off the field.
Even as a child, Butcher always had an interest in athletics, she said in a Zoom interview. Her family members heavily influenced her strong passion for sports, she added.
“I used to follow my older brother around when we were younger and watch his baseball and basketball games all the time,” Butcher said in a Zoom interview. “Since there was such a huge age gap between us, I adopted his interests like the younger sibling usually does. My parents were also very passionate about athletics. My mom was an athlete, but she was an individual sports player. She played tennis weekly. Since my family was so active, naturally I became active as well, and I eventually started playing soccer, basketball, and softball consistently.”
After high school, Butcher planned to play sports at the collegiate level, she said. However, the biggest hurdle in her athletic career came during college.
“My intention was to play softball at UC Davis,” Butcher said. “And so I played constantly and signed up for fall ball. However, I thought I was invincible when I really wasn’t. I thought I didn’t need to rest, and I could play and beat my body up constantly without worrying about icing, eating healthy, and taking care of myself.”
Butcher eventually paid the price once official tryouts for softball came, and she found that she could not even throw a softball without crying out of pain, she said. Her softball coach then told her that she had to either take the year off or consider surgery, which demoralized her since she did not have a strong female mentor to help her get back on track at the time, she added. Eventually, Butcher rekindled her passion for sports by playing a variety of intramural sports such as field hockey, she said.
On the academic side of things, Butcher majored in political science at UC Davis and planned to go to law school to follow in her father’s footsteps, she said. However, the lack of female representation and support in her classes stopped her from pursuing a career in law, she added.
“In my upper-division political science classes, there was just an attitude I did not want to associate myself with,” Butcher said. “Everyone had an arrogance to them and a selfish attitude. Coming from a person who played team sports all her life, the environment in my political science classes was definitely unsettling. I knew I enjoyed helping others and seeing people come together to achieve a common goal, and political science seemed to be the exact opposite of that.”
Luckily, she was easily able to transition out of the political science route, Butcher said. Her athletic background made it clear that she had a passion for teaching, coaching, and leading, she said. This passion for sports eventually led her to pursue teaching and coaching at the high school level, she added.
Butcher has coached a variety of sports at MHS, including girls basketball, softball, tennis, and golf, she said.
According to Butcher, her main goal is to make a positive impact on the community as a whole, not only through athletics. For example, Butcher took on the role of Associated Student Body (ASB) advisor along with other leadership positions, she said.
“I think part of my [motivation to positively impact the community] comes from athletics and playing team sports,” Butcher said. “Being an athlete teaches you to be responsible for a team and helping your teammates become stronger and hone their skills. In my family, it was kind of an unwritten rule that we would all become independent and always be active in the community. Whether it be the organ symphony, the little league, or the children’s hospital, my family was always involved, and we found fun and purpose in volunteering.”
In terms of female mentorship, Butcher’s mother was one of the biggest influences in her life, Butcher said. She strives to follow in her mother’s footsteps and continues to try to be the best female role model she can be, she added.
“You could say that my mom was born a generation too early,” Butcher said. “She was a total college scholar in the 50s. She was that ideal, perfect, independent person. But at the time, society expected women to get married and have kids so that kind of stopped her in her tracks. So when raising my siblings and I, my mother always pushed us to be independent and to strive to do great things.”
However, Butcher’s mother was the only female role model she really ever had, she said. Despite the lack of female representation she saw growing up, however, Butcher always strived to defy the odds, she added.
“At the time, I did not really pay any mind to the fact that political science and sports at the time were male-dominated,” Butcher said. “Looking back on the past, however, I realized that the lack of female representation was actually very concerning. … I think one of my main life purposes is to fill the female mentor role for young girls like my daughter because I know that I definitely would’ve appreciated a female mentor when I was younger.”
