It was a phone call that changed Ken Butler’s life in a hurry.

Following a late July basketball game against Oxford Hills in South Paris, the then Gray-New Gloucester girls’ coach got a call from Providence College women’s coach, Susan Yow.

Just over a week later, Butler had left G-NG and was the Friars new assistant coach.

“I got a phone call out of the blue,” said Butler. “I went outside, and I talked to her for 35 minutes. They asked me to send them a resume. I told them I wasn’t qualified, but I’d send a resume anyway.”

Yow had Butler’s name from his ties to East Carolina, where he was an administrative assistant for the women’s team while he earned his master’s degree in exercise science and sports administration. He got to know Kay Yow, the North Carolina State women’s coach, an East Carolina grad and Susan’s sister. So when the Providence coach went looking for a new assistant, Butler’s name surfaced.

“She was looking for someone who had New England ties,” said Butler.

After sending a resume and numerous calls back and forth, he met Yow for an interview and was offered the job the following day.

“It’s wonderful,” said Butler from his new office Wednesday as he plotted out recruiting trips for the fall. “You’ve got Connecticut, Notre Dame and Syracuse, all the Big East programs, and you go Wow’. I really would never have predicted going to the Big East.”

Butler still had to break the news to his Gray-New Gloucester team. He organized a pizza party, including middle school players and incoming freshmen. He told the kids he had a story to tell them.

“I told them that it’s something I didn’t plan for, and it came up,” he said. “If I turned it down, it’s something that would never happen again.”

The Patriots had their greatest success during Butler’s tenure. G-NG went 82-22 in five seasons. That included back-to-back Western Maine Class B titles in 2001 and 2002.

“That went really well,” he said of his announcement. “When you’ve been there five years, you hate to leave. I told them I would have never believed I would get this job, but I did. For me to say no, I just couldn’t do it.”

After he broke the news to the players, senior Leanne Waterman told Butler and her teammates that all they could do was be happy for him.

“She said We just have to stand up and congratulate you coach,'” Butler recalled. “That’s one great community. The kids and the parents were all great. You can’t say enough about them.”

Butler, a Hermon native, just got himself settled into a new apartment last weekend and is already working steadily. He’ll do plenty of recruiting as well as scouting and practice work outside his activities from the bench.

The Friars went 4-23 last year, but Butler says the program is on the upswing.

His experiences at Mount Olive, where he was an assistant women’s coach, and East Carolina have given him a taste of the college level already. That helps with the transition.

“It’s big change, but I’ve seen it before” he said. “I can’t say I’ve done all the things I’m doing before. It’s a big learning curve.”