FIRST BASE HELP: Head Coach Matt Buczkowski talks with Justin Greene, baseball outfielder and senior. The team currently has 12 seniors committed to play college baseball next year. KELSEY ATCHESON | photo

New coaches took over as replacements for the now retired coaches for the baseball and volleyball team this season while the basketball team is also expecting a new coach next year.  Emily Horvath, volleyball player and senior, said the volleyball team’s situation was unique, for the past two years they have had a new coach each year. She said since they were not able to spend much time with them, it was hard to completely get the “feel” of each coach.

“There are a lot of differences between all coaches…they have different drills and different morals for what they want us to do. Last year as opposed to this year, last year there was a lot more strict little details which is both good and bad and this year I feel like we had a little bit more freedom which really helped us.” Horvath said. “It was pretty good with (Coach Adam Havice) coaching; I think we had a pretty good season overall. I think all teams would say that it’s hard to adjust to a new coach at first, but we really got to understand who he was as a coach so that really benefited us, and it ended up being a really good season.”

Allie Boatright, volleyball player and senior, said there was a learning curve and it took time to adjust to Havice. She said her teammates helped her with the transition to the new coach. 

“Coach Havice really made an effort to help coach us, but like anything, adjusting to something new can be hard. To be a good team everyone needs to be able to work together. There needs to be a good connection between coaches and players,” Boatright said.

Eddie Gill, basketball player and junior, said that he is excited about working with newly hired Ryan Osborn, Head Coach and teacher, in the upcoming 2017-2018 school year.

“We haven’t really been able to tell how he is going to be different. His name is Ryan Osborn, and I don’t think it will be an issue adjusting to him as our new coach because he has been the varsity assistant coach through my time at CHS,” Gill said. “I think that we will be very successful; nobody wants to win more than Coach Osborn and when it comes down to it, that’s all that matters.”

According to Tommy Sommer, baseball player and senior, it was difficult adjusting to Matt Buczkowski, Head Coach and math teacher, since he was different compared to his coach last year. He said Buczkowski helped the team this season by pushing them more and helping the players get ready for big games.   

Buczkowski said it is his 20th year coaching and his first year coaching baseball for CHS. In his 20 years, he said he has coached for two colleges and four different high schools, including CHS.

“I’ve had the chance to (coach) before, and I understood that coming to Carmel, with such a veteran group it would be kind of silly to come in with the ‘it’s my way or the highway’ sort of thing. We just communicated with the players and figured out what they liked and what they felt like was successful in the past ,and we kind of implemented both of our styles to make it work out for the best,” Buczkowski said.

He said it took a short time for the players to get to know him and vise versa. Buczkowski also said the players were more than flexible and welcoming in terms of being open to a new style.

“I think Coach Buczkowski is a little more honest compared to Coach (Dan) Roman last year, and I think that’s actually helped us a lot more just because we seemed more focused for every single game,” Sommer said.

“Just really going after teams and we feel like obviously our talent is good enough to go out there and beat teams, but it takes a lot more than just showing up everyday and beating teams. We obviously liked Coach Roman a lot, but we’ve also transitioned to Coach (Buczkowski) well. Any type of change is difficult to adjust to, but I think we’ve done really well so far, so hopefully it turns out well for us.”