Exclusive Interview with Coach Blundo

Eye of the Hurricane staff Ian Frost and Nick Russo had the opportunity to meet with Coach Blundo to discuss the 2017-2018 basketball season…..

What are you looking forward to this season?

 A new challenge, a new group of kids who are relatively inexperienced. It’s going to be a challenge for us to evolve at an appropriate pace so that we’re where we need to be, at the right time, as a group.  I’m looking forward to that – this is the least amount of experience I’ve had returning – so it should be interesting.

Who will be your top performing players this year?

 Of course we have Marcus Hooker, a four year starter returning. Lorenzo Gardner’s health and how soon he’s able to recover from his knee surgery will determine a lot for us, obviously. We have a number of players that will be competing for quality minutes throughout the year. That, in and of itself, will make practices interesting.

Even though you are their coach first, do you find a certain friendship form with your players?

 I don’t know that friendship is the word. I think eventually that occurs after graduation, but while we’re here I certainly have a great relationship with my players.  They understand that I am here to guide, support , and discipline them in all aspects of their life.

When coaching, what do you find is the hardest or most time consuming thing for you?

Preparation takes a lot of time. Other than that it’s keeping kids focused and on the right track and making sure that they are achieving in all areas, not just on the floor.

Have you always wanted to be a coach or was being a coach something that just came into your life?

I think being a coach was always part of who I am. I’m not surprised that this is what I’m doing now.

In all your years of coaching, what do you consider to be the biggest achievement your team has earned?

Obviously the state championship, but the success that our players are having after high school is our greatest achievement . We have 30 out of 34 kids in college, many of which are graduating. This year, my first group graduates from the 2013 class. Antonio Rudolph, Shawn Anderson, and Brandon Dominick, those guys are all graduating and that’s exciting for me.

How do you motivate your players to try and work harder to make them a successful team?

We try to paint a picture of what life is like when you work hard and what it is like when you don’t. Hopefully they understand that it’s impossible to be successful in just about anything you do without working hard.

Do you ever get bored of coaching? Why or why not?

Never; I get tired, but I don’t get bored, the challenge is too immense to get bored. You do have moments where it can be exhausting. The season is long, we’ve been fortunate to play deep into March every year since I’ve been here.  That’s part of having a successful program.

What do you think is this years teams hardest challenge?

Our ability to shoot the ball. This is not the best shooting team that I’ve had and we’re going to have to shoot it well to be successful.

Do you see another conference or state championship run this year?

I never look that far ahead, my only concern right now is tonight’s conditioning. We want be the best we can be tonight. We’re not a goal oriented team, we focus on the process. We think that if we do the best we can at the moment, good things will happen.