A unique situation
Buzea completes Crown Point football staff, adding Wells to pool of experienced coaches
It’s a real-life coaching experiment.
How much can a staff, led by a coach of Hall of Fame caliber who has assistants with hundreds of years of collective experience, improve a program with unlimited potential relative to its peer schools but has had mediocre results for the past 20 years?
We’re going to find out. Incoming Crown Point football coach Craig Buzea has finished hiring.
The cherry on top of the ice cream sundae is the return of former Merrillville coach Zac Wells to Northwest Indiana.
Wells, who left in 2015 to become Buzea’s defensive coordinator at Homewood-Flossmoor in Illinois, is taking the same job at Crown Point.
Other assistants on Buzea’s new staff are River Forest coach Joe O’Connell, who left to become Crown Point’s wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator; former Hammond coach Eric Schreiber Sr., now Crown Point’s special teams coordinator; former Portage coach Bob Mattix, now Crown Point’s defensive line coach; Homewood-Flossmoor assistant Tom Cicero, now Crown Point’s offensive line coach; and former Crown Point coach Dave Egofske, now its running game coordinator.
There were holdovers, too, including Sean Granger, who will be Buzea’s associate head coach.
It’s not unusual to fill out a staff with former head coaches and experienced assistants.
But getting Wells and a current head coach, O’Connell, make it a cut above.
In nine years at Merrillville, Wells went 81-32 with five sectional titles and three regional titles. He was one of the best coaches in the area when he left for a “higher level” and a significant pay raise. His departure was a shock.
Buzea said bringing in Wells and Cicero, who both live in Crown Point, always was part of the plan. Both will continue to teach at Homewood-Flossmoor.
“Tom and Zac were really key in me wanting to move over here,” Buzea said. “I wanted to have some familiarity (with my staff ).”
For Wells, the move came at an opportune time. He had considered taking a break from coaching to have more time to watch his daughters Grace, a Crown Point senior, and Zoey, a Crown Point sophomore. Both play soccer, and Zoey plays basketball.
Wells said he had misgivings about missing some of the soccer games because of his coaching duties. The drive from Homewood-Flossmoor conflicted with many of the matches.
Wells said the coronavirus pandemic made him realize how much he was missing. He was able to go to the matches this past season because Illinois didn’t have a football season in the fall.
“To be honest, I was teetering on not coaching next year,” he said.
Buzea’s hiring made it an easy decision for Wells to stay in coaching. He will be able to get to both football practice and soccer games easily.
And he’ll be able to enjoy coaching while trying to help build something special at Crown Point.
“I think Crown Point is in a really unique situation right now as far as football is concerned,” he said. “It’s a school with a lot of really successful programs, and it has great administrative support, and we have a great mix of experienced coaches and young coaches that the community is excited about.”
Wells said he doesn’t have a desire to be a head coach again.
“I really just enjoy being an assistant coach,” he said. “To be honest with you, if this were my last interview for the rest of my life, I’d be OK with that. I really just enjoy working with the kids and staying in the background and letting coach Buzz handle the big stuff.”
With a great staff and a deep pool of resources come great expectations.
The race is officially on for Crown Point football to consistently finish at the top of the Duneland Athletic Conference.
All eyes will be watching.