Familiar faces in the Cornell men’s lacrosse staff continue to secure new positions during the offseason. Exactly a month after associate head coach Peter Milliman was promoted to interim head coach following Matt Kerwick’s resignation, former Red star Connor Buczek ’15 has been promoted to the role of Assistant Coach for the program. The announcement came Thursday afternoon.
“Connor is a proven leader with an incomparable work ethic,” Milliman said to Cornell Big Red. “He knows what it takes to be successful at Cornell [and] is dedicated to helping our players become better athletes and better young men. He has always had a profound impact on our team and we are extremely lucky to be able to keep him in Ithaca.”
The Cincinnati native spent the past two seasons after his graduation as a volunteer assistant for the Red. Buczek will serve as the assistant offensive coordinator and “his duties will include coordinating the extra-man offense, working with the goalies, and running the substitution box during games.” Buczek’s new duties are similar to those when he served as volunteer assistant, where he also coached goalies and ran the substitution box.
Selected No. 2 overall in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse collegiate draft, Buczek currently plays for the Florida Launch and was selected to the 2016 MLL All-Star game. In addition to the athletic achievements, Buczek was awarded with the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was one of two students to be admitted directly to Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, graduating with a MBA this past year.
Jason Ben Nathan | Sun Staff Photographer
Buczek earned a handful of awards during his Cornell career and was drafted No. 2 overall in the MLL.
Buczek accumulated many athletic and academic accolades during his time as a student athlete as well. He was three-time All-American midfielder, securing spots on the first team during his junior and senior seasons and was a three-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, including being named the 2014 Ivy League Player of the Year. Buczek was also a two-time Tewaarton Trophy nominee for best collegiate lacrosse player.
During his senior season, Buczek finished first on the team in goals with 40, second in points with 54 and third in assists with 14, becoming the first midfielder in Red history to score 40 goals in a season. Buczek graduated as the highest scoring midfielder in Cornell history with 155 career points, good for 13th amongst all players. Buczek also ranked ninth amongst all players for career goals with 106 and 18th in career assists with 49. His marks were also good enough to be only the seventh midfielder in the Ivy League to score 40 goals in a single season and 100 in a career.
Buczek was awarded the 2015 CLASS — Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School — Award in men’s lacrosse. The national award is given to Division I senior athletes who have notable achievements in “community, classroom, character and competition.” Buczek was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and a USILA Scholar-Athlete, as well as the recipient of Cornell’s Ronald P. Lynch Senior Spirit Award, “given to a senior student-athlete whose leadership on and off the field models the ideals of the Big Red athletics department.”