Order on the court

Fearless.

Competitive.

Self-motivated.

Take your pick.

Combine the sum of those parts, and you have Sydney Butler, a senior guard and a starter for almost all of the four seasons she's played on the Lake City High varsity girls basketball team.

"From the first time I've touched a basketball (in kindergarten), I've always been the feisty one," the 5-foot-7 Butler said. "I guess I was called 'the mean one' but ... I love to get into it. I don't know if I get TOO into it, but it's a competitive sport for me, and I want to do the best I can ... I've always been really into it, I guess you could say."

"If I had to think of one word to describe her, it would be 'fearless,'" said Royce Johnston, in his third year as Lake City's girls coach. "She's not very big, but she is very, very competitive and self-motivated. She leads by example in practice ... this is kind of her job, and she just comes to work every day."

Her job description has changed a little bit over the years, but her work performance has warranted praise from management.

She has scored 1,154 career points at Lake City, ranking her third all-time. She holds school records for most points in a single game (34 at Cheney as a sophomore), assists in a game (13), assists in a season (128) and career assists (381 and counting). She was a second-team all-league pick as a sophomore, and an all-5A IEL selection last year.

Lake City heads into this week 15-4, 3-2 in the 5A Inland Empire League, with a key league game Thursday at Coeur d'Alene. The Region 1 tournament begins a week from Friday, and two teams will advance to state Feb. 17-19 at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

Butler and the Timberwolves qualified for state two years ago, bringing home a fourth-place trophy. It's been her only trip to state out of the ultra-competitive 5A IEL.

"She has really matured and progressed as a player since I started coaching her," Johnston said. "This year she has sacrificed her own scoring to make everybody better. We run a little bit different offense, and she's more of a facilitator for other people, and she's quick enough with the ball that she gets us open shots."

When starting point guard Jasmyn Smith went down with a knee injury in December, Butler shifted from shooting guard to point guard. Instead of her getting out on the break and getting easy baskets, she's now getting the ball to others for fast-break baskets or 3-point shots.

"She's taken on a new role, and she's really elevated her game since Jasmyn was hurt," Johnston said. "She's not motivated by how many points she scores. She prides herself as much playing defense as she does anything else."

After averaging 16.6 points per game last year, she's topped the 20-point mark just once this season. She averages 12.6 points and 6.1 assists this season.

"I'm not going to lie - scoring 20 points a game last year, that was pretty cool," Butler said. "But I'm really enjoying this season. I'm enjoying, obviously, our winning, but just the team chemistry is fun. It's cool to play on a team where everyone knows what everyone else is going to do. You can rely on everyone else, and you know they're going to score when you pass them the ball. It's fun; it's not upsetting to me."

Dale Poffenroth, coach at rival Coeur d'Alene High, said Butler has made herself a more well-rounded player.

"You have to consider her at all times, because she makes the whole offense at Lake City go," he said. "She handles the ball well, and she can go to the basket on you, or pull up and shoot, but yet she has people she's willing to give the ball to."

"It always has bothered my in the past when a player is considered a good player because they can hit the long ball all day, but I feel it's a two-part game," Butler said. "I feel like if you play defense, you'll get offense."

Alyssa Kacalek, another starter and senior on the Lake City girls team, has played basketball with Butler since fourth grade. Kacelek said there was a time, in the park and rec and AAU days, when she played point guard and Butler was a post. These days, both are guards and in practice, they often guard each other in drills.

"She pushes me to be a good defender, and it's hard to guard Sydney, so when I'm guarding her, I either work my butt off or I just look like a chump out there," Kacalek said. "When she guards me, I either work my butt off and I make good decisions or she's going to make me look bad."

HER COACH refers to it as a "scowl."

Or as her parents, Todd and Nancy, say, "she has the face."

Whatever, it is a look of determination when she is out on the court.

"Every single picture I have, I have that little nasty, face-scrunched, mean look, but I love it," said Butler, the oldest of four children. "I always tell them (my teammates), 'I'm not mad, I'm just into it. I give you a yell, give you a look, I'm not mad at you, don't take it personally.'

"When I step out on the court, the most important thing is having fun, but I also want to win. That motivates me more than anything."

"She is so competitive that sometimes her scowl, or what appears to be her being critical of teammates, is just her competitive nature and wanting to win," Johnston said. "It's not personal; she will just hold you to a certain standard. If you're not playing as hard as you should, she's going to let you know that."

She moved into the starting lineup early in her freshman season, and only once since that season has she not started. She got thrown into the mix on a team with five seniors, four juniors and one other freshman and not only survived, but shined.

"We had a competitive team, and I was the new kid, and I got roughed up at practice," Butler recalled. "I had a couple extra bruises here and there, and I think that definitely built onto my competitiveness, to fight back. I think they were surprised when I came in, how tough I was, I didn't really back down. I just played my game. They definitely made me tougher."

"She did a great job, under tough conditions - and the year immediately after our state title," said Darren Taylor, who coached the Timberwolves during Butler's freshman season. "She got a little frustrated sometimes, but pieced together a really nice season. We originally wanted her to be the sixth man, but she played her way into the starting lineup. She was very mature during a trying season ... I think her freshman year gave her the confidence that she could become one of the best players in the league."

BUTLER'S FREE throw routine defies everything you might read in a book, or watch on an instructional video.

After she gets the ball, she steps to the right, then back to the left, and drifts even farther left as she shoots from left of center on the foul line.

"Everyone hates the step," said Butler, who started that routine in middle school and hasn't changed it.

All of her coaches - her dad; Johnston; her AAU coach with the North Idaho Elite, Chris Carlson; even Kelly Reed, an assistant with the Lake City boys basketball team - have tried to get her to change.

Aubree Johnson, the former Post Falls High and Arizona State standout, with whom Butler has worked in the summer, was the one person who said if it works, then stick with it.

"That's my shot," Butler said. "I'm about an 86 percent free throw shooter, so it works. It's a strange routine, but it works ... everything you're not supposed to do."

BUTLER HAS attracted interest from area colleges like North Idaho College, Northwest Nazarene and College of Idaho. The University of Idaho has also shown interest. However, she said she's not sure if she'll play basketball in college.

She doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up, though she admits an interest in cooking.

She's a 3.8 GPA student in Lake City's International Baccalaureate program. She's taking a full course load, even as a senior. Johnston said he has adjusted practice times based on Butler's homework load.

"She has made herself a basketball player by her motivation," Johnston said. "She excels in the classroom because she's motivated. Some people are born self-motivated, and I think she is."

Butler, who has lived in the same house her whole life, says much of that motivation comes from her dad, who coached her throughout much of her grade-school years. She was also a standout cross country runner in middle school, winning a couple of district titles.

"I had the winning mentality for running, and that also transferred to basketball," Butler said. "If I started to feel tired ... 'no you're not.' I'm really self-motivated."

ONE OF her biggest assists won't show up on any stat sheet.

A couple of weeks ago, at practice the day before senior night, Johnston gathered his six seniors together and told them he had a dilemma.

Butler knew what he was talking about. Though the game was a big one - against Lewiston, which was leading the 5A Inland Empire League at the time, and a game Lake City desperately needed to win - she volunteered to give up her starting spot that night, so another senior who doesn't start could get a chance to start on senior night.

"For her to do that says a lot about her," Johnston said.

Perhaps more than any 3-pointer, or assist, or steal, or "the face" could ever say.