When Courtney Butlion sought to use her fifth year of eligibility at a women’s soccer program, she found Towson appealing. But there was one hiccup.
Would the Tigers hold it against Butlion that she scored two goals against them when she was a forward at La Salle?
“Our game last fall was a little heated. We had two red cards in the game,” she recalled of Towson’s 2-1 win last August. “So I was like, ‘This could be a little controversial.’”
Butlion, it turns out, did not need to be concerned because Tigers coach Katherine Vettori welcomed her with open arms.
“When Courtney reached out to me at the end of last season and said, ‘I’m interested in doing a grad year at Towson,’ I said, ‘Yes, please,’” Vettori said with a laugh.
Butlion joins Towson after two seasons with the Explorers, during which she compiled four goals and two assists in 31 games, including 14 starts. She is one of five transfers added to the roster, which includes former Mercy and Virginia Commonwealth forward Sydney Feiler and former Maryland defender Brooke Birrell.
What makes Butlion’s presence especially poignant is that she wears hearing aids in both ears because she is almost completely deaf. But she is undeterred.
“If I look at it as an obstacle, then I’m always focusing on what’s so negative about this rather than trying to look at the positives that come from this experience and how I can use this to help other people around me,” she said. “So that’s more important to me, the bigger picture. I want to be able to motivate other people. If I can do it, they can do it, too.”
In October 2001, Gary and Bernice Butlion and their son Connor welcomed Courtney to their family. She was born nearly deaf and underwent surgery at 2 months old to have grommets, which are small tubes that are inserted into the eardrum to alleviate a condition commonly known as “glue ears,” which is caused by fluid in the middle ears.
A second grommets procedure seemed to work until Butlion began losing her hearing just before entering high school. A comprehensive examination by a doctor revealed that she had indeed lost about 90% of her hearing in her left ear and about 70% in her right ear, which was a relief for Butlion who was getting in trouble with her parents and teachers for not listening.
“I kept complaining to my parents that I couldn’t hear them, and they thought that maybe I was in a rebellious phase or something like that,” she said. “I was struggling a lot.”
Outfitted with Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, Butlion has regained her hearing and even taught herself how to read lips. But some coaches initially didn’t consider her deafness.
“It was hard in sports because I don’t hear the way everyone else hears,” she said. “I don’t hear the drills that the coaches are telling me. Some coaches get mad at you because they’re like, ‘You should be listening,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, you’re forgetting that I’m deaf.’”
After two seasons at Eastern Florida State College, which culminated with her helping the Titans capture the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I championship in 2021, Butlion transferred to La Salle. But she found it difficult to inform her teammates of her deafness.
“I could barely say it without crying because sometimes I feel like it’s embarrassing,” she said. “But everyone around me is always really nice about it, and they embrace me for who I am. It really does make me who I am.”
Vettori said she didn’t know about Butlion’s deafness until La Salle coach Paul Royal told her.
“Every conversation that I had with her, I was not even aware,” she said. “We’ve talked about it since obviously, but you would never know. She’s adapted so well, and you don’t see that on the field.”
Despite her time in the United States, Butlion was born in East London, South Africa, and lived there until she was 7 years old when her family moved to Bunbury, Australia. She participated in field hockey, tennis and track, but didn’t take up soccer until she was 14 because her brother’s soccer team was short one player and the coach asked her to play.
To help ease Butlion’s transition to Towson, Samantha Blumberg, catering coordinator for Bagel Works Hunt Valley and wife of owner and former Tigers linebacker Tim Giancola, aided her in getting a summer job as a youth soccer coach at a local club, found furniture and kitchenware for her apartment, and encouraged her to speak about her battle with deafness. The bagel shop signed Butlion to a name, image and likeness deal, making her a brand ambassador.
“I said to her in that moment, ‘Courtney, I want you to lead with that. I want you to be proud of it. I want you to own it. You’re going to help athletes,’” said Blumberg, adding that the restaurant has food trade sponsorships with Butlion and two other Tigers athletes, basketball’s Christian May and football’s Joden Nelson. “That’s when she kind of realized. ‘OK, this is something I need to talk about because it’s a story I can tell.’”
Butlion said she is grateful for Blumberg’s encouragement.
“Sam has actually changed my life because she is just going out there and telling my story to people and trying to make an impact across the community,” she said. “She knows at the end of the day that I just want to get my story out there to help other people. So she’s really putting that in the works, and Bagel Works feels like a family. They look after me in every way.”
The addition of Butlion is timely after forwards Nia Christopher and Jasmine Hamid and midfielder Phoebe Canoles — Towson’s top-three leaders in goals, assists and points during a historic 2023 season that included a single-season record for wins (15) and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance — bolted for the United Soccer League. Butlion emphasized that she is eager to complement her new teammates.
“I just want to continue to build the legacy that Towson has started, especially last year,” she said. “So I don’t really feel pressure, but I feel hungry to work hard because I know what shoes I have to fill.”
Towson at UMBC
Sunday, 6 p.m.
Stream: ESPN+
