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They’re friends, on and off the field.
When the referee’s whistle blows and the soccer ball starts rolling, they immediately know the other’s strengths and weaknesses and can predict every move.
It comes from playing together for more than 10 years: from 5-year-olds at the YMCA, to Amateur Athletic Union teams, to the top club-level and even Olympic-caliber competition they now see.
But all that knowledge sure is a pain when Daniel Butner and Dustin Efird play against each other three times a year in high school.
“Dustin and Daniel: You can see the level of talent those two guys have going against each other, and it’s pretty competitive,”said Salisbury’s Tom Sexton, who coaches Butner. “He hates playing against Dustin, because he’s always looking over his shoulder waiting for him to fly in.”
Few other players on the high school scene give Butner or Efird any trouble, so when they face each other, it becomes a special treat. It’s been extra sweet this year for Efird, as his South Rowan Raiders already beat the Hornets twice, one of those in the title game of the Rowan County Soccer Tournament.
Butner’s last chance to best Efird’s Raiders this season comes tonight at 7 at Salisbury.
“It’s fun,”Efird said. “We know we can take each other.”
“We’re always trying to beat each other one-on-one,”added Butner. “Coming out here and actually doing it, he’ll get me once, I’ll get him once. One of us burns the other guy, we just laugh.”
The degree of difficulty required for others to beat Efird or Butner brings anything but laughs. They play soccer all year, and at an incredibly high level.
Butner and Efird both joined the Charlotte Soccer Club several years ago and this past summer placed fourth in the nation in under-16 Premier League play. As members of the Charlotte team, they own back-to-back state titles and a regional crown to go along with their national showing.
The duo’s success on the club level led to other opportunities, like successful tryouts for the U.S. national program. Efird and Butner both play for North Carolina’s Olympic Development Program team, which hones the skills of talented high school players to — hopefully — one day represent their country in the World Cup or Olympics. Efird also made the southeastern region’s Olympic Development Program, placing him among the top 40 players in the region. Butner made the pool of reserves, marking him as one of the top 100 players along the eastern seaboard.
“It’s been very cool to watch them develop alongside each other, then square off,”Sexton said of the high school juniors. “They still have another year to develop, which is a scary thought.”
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Efird and Butner played together for the first time in a league at the South Rowan YMCA. Efird’s dad was the head coach, Butner’s mom the assistant for the 5-year-olds.
They graduated to a RowanRage AAU team that won anything and everything, then to Charlotte. Through all the years of car pooling to practices and games, the Efirds and Butners grew close, and Dustin and Daniel developed a hefty appreciation of one another.
Efird, a sweeper, admires Butner’s scoring skills. And Butner, a forward, likes having someone he can count on in the defense.
“When he’s on your team, you don’t have anything to worry about. The ball gets back there, no big deal,”Butner said. “I’ll never forget the time down in Texas for (Premier League) regionals, I scored to put us up 2-0, then they rip a shot and I see Dustin fly in the air and do a bicycle kick and save it in the goal. My jaw just dropped.”
Moments like that one help Efird toil outside obscurity.
“You don’t get very much glory playing sweeper,”Efird said. “Ilike it a lot, but it took a little getting used to.”
“He plays a position that’s not heralded, but he just eats people up in practice,” South Rowan head coach Sean Szakal said. “In a game when there’s a 2-on-1 and he stops it, that’s when you notice him.”
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Butner’s one of those players who’s hard not to notice. Last week against South, he lined up a free kick from about 35 yards away that was angled well off to the right in the closing seconds. The shot arched from left to right, went over everybody and clanked off the upper-90, inches away from a game-tying score.
“That shot he hit, I’ve talked about that so much to everybody,”Szakal said. “I could tell what he was going to do and I just said, ‘There’s no way, he’s not gonna put that thing in there.”
Sexton called Butner the best distributor of the ball he’s ever had at Salisbury, and 28 assists last year go a long way in proving that.
Efird and Butner didn’t get to travel the country playing soccer for the club team for free. They travel to Charlotte twice during the week and practice twice Saturday and twice Sunday.
“They’re getting us ready for college,”Butner said. “We’re always down there. You have to be very dedicated.”
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Playing against each other is OK, but Efird and Butner seem to enjoy being teammates quite a bit. That’s why, about a year before they have to make a decision about college, they’re already considering — half jokingly, half seriously — making it a package deal.
“Both of them are going to be great college players, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they talked to one another about going to the same place,”Sexton said. “It’ll be a very high-level Division I place. A team that gets Efird and Butner will get a great package.”
They’re already well on their way to fulfilling big dreams — beyond major collegiate soccer lies the U.S. men’s national team, a career in this country with Major League Soccer or travel abroad with countless professional teams.
“With Efird’s work habit, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll play pro,”Szakal said. “I’ve told Dustin before that this is really his team. With an exceptional player like him, if I don’t listen to some of what he says, then I’m not being a good coach. He’s just that smart of a player.”
“They’re very even-tempered, stable kids who have been brought up the right way,”Sexton said. “They’re extremely gifted and talented, but very humble. They’re like bookends.”
Efird at one end of the field, Butner at the other. With a whole lot of talent in between.
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