Coach’s Corner: Mindy Buuck
Letting the players lead their team and turn to the coaches for guidance.
Mindy Buuck leads the Bellmont softball team with that exact mindset. She knows that coaches have a role to play, but she wants team leadership to be prevalent in the dugout.
“I tell the girls all the time it’s their team, I’m just the coach of it,” said Buuck. “I want them to have a say in how things are going and to be part of the process.”
Buuck favors a direct coaching style. When she believes that a player has not quite maximized their potential, she challenges them to strive for better.
Buuck stated, “I’m just a very blunt person. I come at them head-on. ‘This is what I see out of you and this is where you’re coming up short and this is where I know you can be and I need you to get to that level because I know you’re capable of it.’”
Buuck feels that expressing belief in a student-athlete is instrumental for helping them overcome a slump. She finds that showcasing continued confidence in a player can be all they need to break out of a struggle.
While not changing her method of coaching, Buuck prioritizes maintaining an open dialogue with her players. She is accepting of when players may require some leniency, but she likes to maintain balance.
Her ability to help players overcome struggles was crucial throughout the season. She noted how the Braves were in search of offensive rhythm early in the season.
What changed to help ignite the bats? Being direct while expressing trust.
“We had a pretty lengthy conversation on the way to Kokomo,” Buuck said. “We had a team therapy session. We just put everything out there, what our frustrations were, what we really loved about each other and worked through a lot of those issues and just faced them head on.”
She shared that the trip was therapeutic in the sense that it injected a greater sense of positivity in the squad.
The season did not end the way Buuck or the Braves thought it would with a loss at the hands of Peru in sectionals, but it was a season where Buuck witnessed plenty of growth from her team.
“Bittersweet, I guess. I anticipated (the season) to go a lot differently in the end. We had a lot of good, shining moments. A lot of growth from last year, even though we were so young. So that was good to see, but the sting of the way the season ended is going to hurt for a little while,” Buuck said.
She continued, “I think the biggest (improvement) was just team camaraderie. We had to work through some things in the beginning of the season, just getting into our rhythm. We couldn’t really find where our new players fit right away and as we figured that out, then that really came together.”
That same growth is something for the Braves to build on going into 2024.
With the way Buuck runs the program, players will be given everything they need to fulfill their potential and cultivate their talent in an effort to take Bellmont to new heights next year.