MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — At James Lunsford Court in Milledgeville hangs the number 23.
It’s a reminder of the one who did it best at Baldwin, and the one who will be watching this season from above.
Baldwin basketball great Tasha Butts died of breast cancer last month at the age of 41.
After her death, many in Central Georgia expressed their grief over the death of a special talent.
“Definitely gut punching,” former teammate and current Central girls’ basketball coach Tamara Bolston-Williams said. “Seeing a superhero, someone you viewed as a superhero, that won at everything while you were alongside her, it was just shocking.”
At Baldwin, Butts was named a consensus all-American, Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year and she remains the Bravettes’ all-time leading scorer today.
Her teams never won a state title but came close; Baldwin lost to Beach High School in the 2000 state championship, but the success didn’t stop.
Butts graduated and went on to play for Pat Summit’s Lady Volunteers, helping Tennessee to National Championship game appearances in 2003 and 2004.
Through the highest highs and lowest lows, Tasha left no doubt.
“It was just guaranteed buckets,” Bolston-Williams said. “You knew when the ball went to her, it was automatic two points, an automatic and-one or an automatic free throw.”
For her former head coach, he said that Butts was a leader.
“Baldwin’s girls ranked among the top five,” former head coach Anderson Bentley Jr. said. “I don't care what classification it is or was, they could play, and she was the director. She was my coach on the floor.”
As selfless with the basketball as she was with her time, people came to see Tasha the player – but also Tasha the person.
“Everybody was coming to see Tasha Butts,” Bolston-Williams said. “And everywhere she went, it became the same thing. Like an infectious virus, she infected everybody. She touched everybody's heart.”
“I really will miss her, because even when I got the position as the head coach here, she reached out to me,” current Baldwin head coach Kizzi Walker said. “We met and she gave me some pointers and ideas. She is a legend on her own, the hometown hero that we look up to.”
After a short WNBA career, she returned to Tennessee as a coach — and then four more stops — before being named head coach of a Division I program at Georgetown.
A dream come true for Tasha — and everyone else.
“I guess you could say I was like a little kid on Christmas day,” Bentley said. “I didn't know what to say or do. And that's what she worked for, that's what she always wanted to do.”
And while fate wouldn't have it that way, one thing is certain: the next Tasha at Baldwin is on the way.
“I always see a little Tasha over here, a little Tasha over there,” Bentley said. “Everywhere I go because I can see the players who can pull out that potential to be as good as they want to be.”
“They don't have that grit that she has, that tenacity and I'm trying to get it, but yes I see glimpses and I see some players that are able to do it,” Walker said.
Tasha Butts was a great player, but the legacy she leaves behind is much bigger than herself.
It’s a kind of attitude, mentality and tradition you’ll always find at Baldwin High School.