Sons often want to emulate their fathers, and Luke Budzielek is no different.
But the Hobart senior’s dad, Mike Budzielek, set the bar extremely high for his son. Mike holds the state record for longest field goal in an outdoor state championship game (41 yards against Castle). He also converted 125 consecutive extra points in his playing days at Hobart in the 1980s.
But the younger Budzielek is pretty special himself.
Luke has made the all-conference team two years in a row as a punter, and kicking coach Bill Manolopoulos, who played at Indiana University, believes his senior has the ability to kick at the college level.
Hobart coach Ryan Turley thinks he can too.
“We have a history of sending kickers and punters to college,” Turley said. “His name is big time in Hobart. He’s following in uncles and his dad’s footsteps.
“But he’s more than a punter. He’s a great athlete. He’ll playing on the offensive line for us and he’ll play middle linebacker.
“He’s a stud baseball player too. He was in the top five in batting average last year.”
The Brickies, who are No. 9 in the Post-Tribune Preseason Top 10, are hoping for special things like that as they hope to rebound from a 3-7 record last season. Hobart started 2-1 before losing six of its last seven games.
Hobart lost their top running back/linebacker, Noah Smith, to graduation but bring a lot of experience back this season.
“The goals never change at Hobart,” Turley said. “We play for championships and we’re moving in that right direction. We want to continue to improve and work on our blocking and tackling.”
Budzielek has the same goals.
“We have 25 seniors so there’s going to be a lot of contributions,” he said. “Our whole offensive line’s returning. The mentality in practice is unbelievable compared to last year.
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“This year, our goal is state. We’re going to take it step by step, championship by championship. Our goal is definitely state. We all believe that we are good enough to be at state.”
The defense will need to show dramatic improvement if the Brickies hope to make some noise in the Northwest Crossroads Conference and compete in sectionals.
Hobart allowed 29.3 points per game in 2014.
Budzielek is going to be at the linebacker position for the first time, hoping to strengthen up the defense.
“I started on the defensive line, but they wanted me to be a linebacker,” he said. “Our defense is dramatically different. We’re working on the things we couldn’t do as well last year. We’ve definitely tightened things up.”
Dakota Bock and Nick Ray are also expected to make big contributions at linebacker.
Ryan Haskell is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
Countdown to kickoff
The Post-Tribune is counting down the Region’s top 10 teams between now and opening night, Aug. 21.
10: Valparaiso
9: Hobart
8: Friday
7: Saturday
6: Sunday
5: Monday
4: Tuesday
3: Wednesday
2: Thursday, Aug. 20
1: Friday, Aug. 21