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Connor Buczek
Former men's lacrosse great Connor Buczek '15 was elevated to the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse in the spring of 2020 after spending five seasons on staff, first as a volunteer assistant coach for two years and then as an assistant coach for three seasons. He has served as the offensive coordinator since 2018, and his duties have also included working with the goalies.
With the 2023 season, Buczek proved the previous year was far from beginners luck, as he helped guide the team to the program's 30th NCAA tournament appearance. The Big Red earned the outright regular season Ivy League Champions title. For his regular season work, he was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. He was also recognized as the ECAC Coach of the Year. In his coaching of the offense, he created the nation's seventh best scoring machine, which averaged 14.8 goals per game. The most of the scoring came from CJ Kirst, a mind that Buczek developed into goals and points per game leader, nationally. Kirst rewrote the record for most goals by a junior in the 2023 season, clocking 65. Under Buczek, Kirst was named a Tewarraton finalist, the USILA Lt. Col. Jack Turnbull Award for Outstanding Attackman recipient, first-team All-American by the USILA, Inside Lacrosse, and USA Lacrosse, the Ivy League Player of the Year following his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022, and a unanimous All-Ivy first-team selection.
In his first ever season of action, 2022, Buczek led the team to its best start since the 2014 season, going 6-0 through March 19th. The stretch included wins over #5 Ohio State and #11 Yale. Cornell would go on to beat #11 Harvard at home and #5 Princeton on the road to claim a share of the Ivy League title for a record 30th time. The regular season performance under Buczek earned the Big Red their first NCAA birth since the 2018 season. Cornell would take the challenge head on, first taking down #12 Ohio State in a rematch from the regular season, then took out Delaware in the tournament quarterfinals. The Big Red stormed through #5 Rutgers, winning 17-10 in the semi-finals to advanced to the eighth all-time NCAA Tournament final, and first since 2009. Though the late-game comeback fell short to top-seeded Maryland, Buczek and his team had earned the right to the title National Runner-Up after nearly two seasons completely away from the game, a formidable feat for a first-time head coach.
Buczek has guided the team through turbulent times in his first season at the helm, taking command at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he guided the team through uncertain times and maintained one of the oldest and strongest traditions of Cornell lacrosse; the idea of family. Despite remote work, student athletes and alumni spread across the globe, and an entire season lost when the Ivy League ceased play for the 2020-21 season, Coach Buczek made certain Cornell lacrosse did not lose sight of what makes the program one of the most historic.
As an assistant coach, Buczek used his knowledge of Cornell's offensive systems to help turn the Big Red into one of the most powerful offenses in the country, year-in and year-out. In the 2020 season, Cornell wasted no time putting its high-octane offense on display, as the Big Red finished the season ranked first in the nation in shot percentage (.404), second in scoring offense (18.40) and assists per game (10.40), and third in points per game (28.80). The team was off to a 5-0 start before the season came to an abrupt halt due to COVID-19, finishing the season ranked No. 2 in both the USILA Coaches' and Inside Lacrosse/Maverik Media Polls. This marked the team's highest USILA ranking since 2014.
In 2019, Buczek coached the only team in the nation to boast three attackmen ranked in the top-30 in points per game, as Jeff Teat, John Piatelli, and Clarke Petterson became just the third set of Cornell teammates to each register 50+ points in a single season. Following the campaign, all three were named All-Ivy, as was rookie netminder Chayse Ierlan, who ranked in the top-25 in the nation in both save percentage and saves per game. The Cornell offensive unit dominated in several facets of the game, ranking among the top-five in the country in four major statistical categories. They finished the season ranked second in the nation in shooting percentage (.368), third in assists per game (8.93), fourth in points per game (23.2), and fifth in goals per game (14.27).
In his first season as a full-time assistant in 2018, Buczek helped goalie Christian Knight '18 to the best season of his career, posting the ninth-best save percentage in the nation (.558), while ranking 14th in the country in saves per game (11.36). Back-up goalie, Caelahn Bullen, was also outstanding in relief of an injured Knight, posting a 5-0 record while saving .570 percent and posting a goals-against average of 7.73.
As a volunteer, Buczek was primarily responsible for coaching the goalies and running the substitution box during games. During that time, Buczek, a recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, was a student in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. One of the best business school's in the country, he was in rare company, as one of just two individuals, and the only one from Cornell, to be admitted directly from undergraduate studies.
Playing Career
In the league's inaugural season, Buczek made an immediate impact for the Premier Lacrosse League's (PLL) Atlas Lacrosse Club, being named a PLL All-Star in 2019.
In addition to an impressive PLL campaign, Buczek was a member of the U.S. Men's Lacrosse Indoor National Team that won bronze at the 2019 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. Buczek tallied four goals and three assists in six appearances over the course of the tournament, helping the team secure its fifth-consecutive World Indoor Lacrosse bronze medal. Buczek came up especially big in the team's quarterfinal matchup against the Czech Republic, notching two goals and an assist in the U.S.'s 17-3 victory.
The second overall selection in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft, Buczek spent three seasons as a midfielder for the Florida Launch and has participated in three MLL All-Star Games. Early in the 2018 season, he registered his 100th career point. A dangerous two-point scoring threat, he currently ranks among the top 10 in MLL history for two-pointers and has registered the second most points in Launch franchise history. He also spent one season playing for the NLL’s Toronto Rock.
In May of 2017, Buczek was named by US Lacrosse among the 59 players selected to try out for the 2018 U. S. Men's National Team, where he made it to the final round of cuts.
Buczek helped the US to a gold medal at the 2012 FIL U19 World Championship in Finland.
A three-time All-American at Cornell, including consecutive first team honors over his final two seasons, Buczek graduated as the top scoring midfielder in Big Red history with 155 points. He also graduated ranked in the top 20 in Cornell history among all players for goals (ninth - 106), points (13th - 155), and assists (18th - 49).The 2014 Ivy League Player of the Year, he was a three-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, becoming just the ninth player in Cornell history, and the 33d player in the history of the Ivy League, to be named to the top team three times in their career. A two-time Tewaaraton Trophy nominee, he finished his senior season ranked first on the team in goals (40), second overall in points (54) and third overall in assists (14). In 2015, Buczek also became the first midfielder in Cornell history to score 40 goals in a season, and is just the seventh midfielder in the history of the Ivy League to record both 40 goals in a single season and 100 goals in a career.
Buczek was selected as the 2015 Senior CLASS Award winner in men's lacrosse. To be eligible for the national award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
A well-respected member of the Big Red community, Buczek was also named the recipient of Cornell's Ronald P. Lynch Senior Spirit Award, given to senior student-athlete whose leadership on and off the field models the ideals of the Big Red athletics department.
A tremendous student in the classroom, Buczek was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and a USILA Scholar-Athlete.
Personal
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Buczek resides in Ithaca.
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