New Coaches at Helms of McCann Tech Boys, Girls Hoop Teams
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The new varsity basketball coaches at McCann Tech Monday started putting their players through their paces.
And they promise to keep running the Hornets all winter long.
“I'm a very up-tempo kind of coach,” McCann Tech girls coach Kathy Budaj said during a break from the season’s first practice. “I'm going to work them hard in practice. Hopefully, we'll play a lot more man-to-man, which will lead to an aggressive style of play. We have girls who can run, which will help make that difference. That's what we're hoping for this year for a little bit of a change.”
Chris Bullett, who takes over McCann’s boys program, has a similar plan for his Hornets.
“We're probably going to have an up-tempo style of play,” Bullett said. “We're guard heavy more than big men. It's probably going to be pressure defense up top.”
Bullett, a Clarksburg native and graduate of the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, is new to the McCann program but is a familiar face in North Adams after a half dozen years in the city’s youth basketball program.
Budaj has flopped roles with former McCann head man Mike Dowling, who will be assisting her with the varsity and coaching the JV, a post Budaj held the last two seasons.
“Mike and I had been talking, and we just figured it would be a good switch,” Budaj said.
This marks the third school where Budaj serves as a varsity head coach. In the spring, she led the Wahconah girls lacrosse team (which includes McCann in its coop) to the Central/Western Massachusetts Division 2 quarter-finals; this fall she took Hoosac Valley’s girls soccer team to the sectional quarters.
It is her first stint as a head varsity basketball coach.
“I'm excited for it,” Budaj said. “I have a lot to learn. I've been picking as many brains as I can, learning as much as I can the last couple of years, educating myself.”
It does not hurt that she has Dowling on her bench.
“We work so well together, and we did work together last year,” Budaj said. “It's a nice transition. We're going to work together. We're going to practice together, so the JVs and varsity will be all on the same page. So as they keep moving up, they'll know what to expect.”
The McCann girls return its top six scorers from last year as they look to improve from a 5-10 season and regain the kind of form that produced seven league championships and four state vocational championships in the 21st century.
“We talked about [last year],” Budaj said. “I broke down last year's results: the first eight games, the next four games and the last eight games and the point differential between the three was significant. It was huge.”
Budaj thought last year’s team got discouraged as the year wore on and the losses mounted, so a three-point loss to Turners Falls in the first meeting became a 20-point blowout in the rematch a month later, for example.
“Hopefully, we'll put a few more wins on the board because it's tough when you don't win games,” she said. “Every day is a new day. Every game is a new game. And for every game we're going to have a goal.”
Bullett, too, is taking a turn the page approach for a boys program that went 10-10 in the regular season a year ago before losing by 15 at Hampden Charter in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 4 tournament.
“As far as what's happened in the past, we're throwing all that out and starting fresh,” said Bullett, the grandson of Bernard "Bucky" Bullett, for whom the gym at Drury High School is named. "I know they were 10-11 last year. I feel like with the talent level, they could have done better, but I didn't see every game, so I can't really talk about it.”
McCann Tech’s boys open the season Dec. 9 at home against Pathfinder and play their first three games in Berkshire County -- Dec. 12 at home for Lenox and Dec. 16 at Mount Greylock. The girls open on the road at Pathfinder and Southwick before coming home to face Smith Academy on Dec. 23.