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Head Baseball Coach Matt Buczkowski talks to his team during practice. Buczkowski said interactions with players during a game are different than how they are as people.

The ihsaa is home to over 410 schools, each with numerous high school sports teams; however, each high school coach runs his or her sport teams in different ways that must still abide by IHSAA rules while representing his or her school in a positive way.

Athletics Director Jim Inskeep said there are certain factors that affect the school’s decision-making process when looking for new head coaches, including the prospective coach’s ability to communicate with people.

“Every coach takes on their own personality when the ball gets put into play; how they are perceived during the game and in their interactions with their players are different than how they are as people- that’s just the nature of coaches,” Inskeep said. “One of the biggest attributes the athletic department tries to look for in any of our coaches doesn’t necessarily deal with their knowledge of the game as it does with their ability to communicate. We have found over the years that our head coaches’ ability to communicate directly with our student athletes, parents and other people associated with the program has served our programs pretty well.”

Baseball Head Coach Matt Buczkowski said during games it’s important to keep his self control while still being passionate about the game.

Buczkowski said, “It’s very important to keep your composure during games. You want to be passionate, but there’s a certain line you can’t cross, but you always want to show you care about what’s happening during games. It’s important to keep my composure so I can properly lead my team.”

Inskeep said it’s important for coaches to maintain a good attitude during games because while the coaches are not only representing their school and team, their attitudes may impact potential student athletes who are considering enrolling at CHS.

Inskeep said, “The way coaches portray themselves during game situations may be the only snapshot that other prospective families of student athletes in the community get of them. They don’t get to see the coaches interacting in the hallway with the students or other faculty; they only get to see them during their games against other schools.”

Kiersten Carlson, varsity tennis player and senior, said her coaches’ attitude affects the way her team comes out to play.

Carlson said, “When Coach (Spencer Fields) is motivated, he really pumps (us) up. If he’s in a quiet mood we’re in a quiet mood but when he’s hyping us up, I think it really gets us ready to play our match. I think his attitude almost directly affects the players.” 

Buczkowski said during games he has had to control his emotions in intense situations and it is very important to do, because he can then coach his team well and be able to communicate well with his players.

“I have to calm myself down during games when it gets intense, but most coaches do. When the game is on the line, emotions are high but you have to remember that you have a game to play and you have to do that in the right mindset,” said Buczkowski. “It’s very important to maintain a good attitude with your players because it’ll allow you to communicate well with them and they’ll trust you during tough game situations and frankly in general too.”

Carlson said she finds it easy to communicate with her coach during practice and games when he has a positive attitude. Carlson said, “I feel like it’s really easy to reach out to our coach especially when he has a positive attitude because he’s really easygoing and it makes it easy to talk to him when he is communicating well with us.”