HHF/GID Q&A with Crown Point Head Coach Craig Buzea

[Guest DT]

Thanks Coach Buzea for spending some time with us here at Hoosier High School Football and The Gridiron Digest

 

 

Question :

First Coach Buzea, on behalf of our entire Gridiron Digest community, we extend a hearty welcome back to you and your family to Indiana.  More importantly, please give us a quick update on your health, as many of our members have been following your progress through the recovery phase.

Response

My health continues to improve each day. July 2nd will be one year since my Bone Marrow transplant. My cells are 100% my donors cells and we are extremely grateful and fortunate that they were able to find me a donor that was a perfect match for me. We will continue to take it one day at a time.

 

Question :

It's been fairly well documented that Crown Point is the one job that could potentially lure you back across the border.  CPHS ic clearly top notch in every phase from academics, athletics, the performing arts, etc.  As you looked at the landscape in the Duneland and across football in northern Indiana, what specifically did you hone in on that made Crown Point the one and only option?

 

Response

    To be honest, when I told H-F 4 years ago that I would be retiring from the classroom after the 2020-2021 school year, my plan was to either stay and Coach at H-F, or possibly move down South where I had several offers from Coaching buddies of mine down in Florida and           

Alabama , or just relax for a year and work on my golf game and see what happened. That all changed when I was diagnosed with Leukemia. After 16 months of being laid up and not being able to do anything physically for that time, made me realize retirement from football would not be an option. I also put an even bigger emphasis on my family, all which live in Northwest Indiana, so making a move down south was no longer a possibilty. My wife and I have had several discussions over the years whether I had a desire to finish my career in NW Indiana. I would always tell her that the only job I would be interested in looking at would be the Crown Point job if it ever opened. I was not interested in taking a position at a smaller school as I have always Coached at the highest level in each state and it was important to me to continue doing that. I always loved what the city of CP had to offer. The school was top notch along with outstanding and highly motivated student-athletes, great facilities and a community that loved  athletics was always something that stood out to me. In my opinion, It was one of the few schools left, that gave you that hometown feel on Friday Night Lights that reminded me of when I played at Griffith High School. 

    

    I received a call on the first day of Christmas break advising me that the CP job just opened up and had a short conversation with AD Bill Dorulla to see if there was mutual interest, and there was.  That led to a 3 hour meeting down in my basement a couple days later and            after hearing from Bill  what the Administration's vision was for CP Football , I was sold. I immediately started to put a staff together behind closed doors, so once it became official we could hit the ground running. A month later I was named the Head Coach at Crown Point            High School and couldn't be more excited to work at such a fine High School. with an outstanding Administration, from the Superintendent on down, superb student/athletes and a terrific Coaching Staff that I was allowed to assemble.

    

    Question :

You had great success at HF, turning a below average program into an annual big school state title contender.  Was it difficult to walk away from that program where you enjoyed so much success over the past decade?

 

Response

Its always difficult to walk away from a place that you have invested so much time and effort into but I felt at this point in my career I was looking for a new challenge. Our program at H-F was humming. We had lost 3 regular season games (all to the same team) the past 3 years and only lost 4 games the past 5 seasons. We started to branch out on a national scale in our non-conference games and was going to continue to do so. I always wanted to go out on my own terms and wanted someone on my staff to have an opportunity to take over the program, which fortunately has happened. I was able to take away a ton  of great memories and countless lifelong relationships with current a former players and their families. Im leaving behind an outstanding coaching staff and a tremendous amount of talented players that will continue to carry on the tradition of H-F Football.

 

 

Question :

Illinois handled the Covid Pandemic differently than how it was managed in Indiana.  What was it like for you and your staff to flip football to spring?  Do you think the flip will have any long term adverse consequences for Illinois high school football?

 

Response

    It was a difficult season for everybody involved. I appreciate the IHSA working hard to allow the teams to have shortened season, but when it was announced that there would be only 6 games with no post season tournament, it took the wind out of the sails of most. I was            always leary of the amount of time we were allowed to get our teams ready to play, and that it would lead to a significant amount of injuries and unfortunately that ended up playing out. Our roster was half of what it normally was with several of our guys opting out because            basketball and baseball were being  played at the same time and also had our top players already head off to college in January. All teams did the best they could do but it definitely was not the same product that we were used to seeing. I don't foresee any negative effects           moving  forward with Illinois football, and would expect that the level of competition  will be back to a very high caliber this Fall. 

  

Question :

The Duneland Conference has not won a big school state title since Portage in 1977.  The conference has not changed much since you left Michigan City for HF.  What will it take for a DAC school to compete and win against the huge Indy mega schools?  Can it be done, given recent history?

 

Response

I think it is possible especially with some of the Bigger High Schools in The Region having invested in Full time strength instructors to run their weight programs. I believe that was the biggest gap between the Indy schools and us. I know we have an outstanding strength Coach in Mark Garrett who is known to be  one of the best in the state. What he does with our athletes is incredible and eventually we hope that transfers over on to the field. I know several other schools also have outstanding strength coaches as well which will only benefit their teams in making a run to a state championship. Valpo, M'Ville and MC have been very close in recent years. I believe its only a matter of time until that happens but it will be a tall order and one that will need a combination of outstanding players, coaching and a few breaks along the way. 

 

Question :

The DAC turned out D1 prospects at a fairly decent rate from the 80s to the mid 2000s.  Then the pipeline slowed down considerably.  You have become accustomed to a certain talent level at HF.  Crown Point has not had a Power 5 D1 level player for many years.  How do you assess the current talent level on your roster, and do you see an opportunity in the lower levels and in the feeder programs to rebuild the talent base of the program?  Also, how do your numbers look for a big 6A school?

Response

   It's hard for me to evaluate our talent level since the only thing I would be able to compare it to would be H-F which is obviously a lot different. I believe our skill positions arent anywhere where we would like them to be. It may never be as good as Merrillville or Michigan City but we hope we can  certainly narrow the gap. The one thing that our staff has found is that our guys need to be taught how to play the game of football and not just run football plays. They are willing to do everything we ask of them, but we must improve their Football IQ along with their basic fundamental base. Until  we can fix those things, nothing else matters. Our guys are hungry and anxious to learn, which is a great place to start. We had a chance to work with our lower levels this Spring and Coach the Coaches down there and implement our system. It's an area that has been an area of neglect for a  number of years and by doing so, we hope it will accelerate the learning curve of our players. We feel we have some nice young prospects in the lower levels and can make a difference sooner than later. Lastly, we have been in talks with our feeder program, the Jr. Bulldogs. We are working with  them to get them on board, to implement our philosophies and schemes. This will go a long way to getting CP relevant once again in 6A.

 

   We currently have 190 players 9-12 participating this summer, which  includes 118 in grades 10-12. This is an increase of over 50 from last season so the interest in being a Bulldog is there. Now its up to us to develop those players but more importantly continue to recruit the     hallways and make  sure we are getting the best athletes in the school out for football.

 

   Question :

In terms of offensive and defensive base philosophy and scheme, what can we expect to see when your team comes out to line up for the upcoming season?

 

 

Response

We have our base Offensive and defensive schemes in place which we have been using for several years.  We will contunue implementing that philosophy and schemes but will utilize the specific schemes that fit our personnel, and obviously that may take us an entire summer to come up with those answers. For us to use the same schemes on both  sides of the ball that we did at H-f is not ideal. We had 4-5 guys on offense who were running 4.5-4.6 so we used their talent a certain way. Im quite certain that wont be the case at CP, so we will play to our players strengths, whatever they may be. On defense, we have used an odd front due to the fact that we didnt have many d-line type players but had plenty of LB type kids. At CP, it may be different and we may have to implement entirely different schemes. Either way, we want to give our players the best chance to succeed. 

 

Question :

Without a doubt, expectations in the community, in The Region, and throughout the state will be sky high for your program this year.  Realistically, what are your goals, short term and long term relative to wins and losses and overall program development?

 

 

Response

    Well you are right in one respect and that is the community is super excited about Bulldog Football. I certainly don't want to curb their enthusiasm, but there is a ton of work to be done before we can become competitive in the DAC and even our non-conference opponents.          Programs like this don't get fixed overnight, but I believe with the  willingness of our players and a coaching staff that includes 5 former Head Coaches, we will make  CP proud of the product they are seeing on Friday nights. CP lost some really good players of last years        team including an outstanding Running Back, 3 year starting Qb, an Indiana All star at LB and an outstanding TE/DE among many others that will be difficult to replace.  On offense, we return nobody with any significant rushing yards, no player that has thrown a Varsity pass        and our leading receiver returns with 124 yards receiving. To say we have to reload on our skill positions is an understatement. We feel we have some promising offensive linemen returning which is a good place to start. On defense, our top returning tackler was 7th on the          team last year. We have a handful of players that received significant time on the defensive side of the ball last year and we will be counting on them to provide leadership for us. We currently have 10-12 sophomores that will have a legitimate chance at starting or seeing              significant playing time this year along with 3 freshmen who are fighting for starting spots.

 

    Most likely, we will take the field  as the youngest and least experienced team on the field every Friday night. I believe one of the most neglected facets of Coaching Football is the development of players. Our coaching staff will take extreme pride in developing our young men      on a daily basis in hopes that they will be ready to compete at a high level before too long. We feel we have an outstanding core of Seniors that deserve to go out with a positive experience and we will do everything we can to make sure that happens. 

 

     Our goal this season is to compete as a Team every Friday night while playing our best Football at the end of the year. Eventually, our hope is at some point in the future that Crown Point is being mentioned as one of the top 6a Football programs in Indiana. 

 

     The vision is set!! The challenge is real!! it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work!!!