Q&A with new L-P athletic director Michael Kuziel

Michael Kuziel has been involved in athletics his entire life.

He played soccer when he was a child, wrestled and played football in junior high and swam and played water polo through high school and college.

Kuziel has been a coach for more than two decades (at Andrew and Neuqua Valley high schools) and a junior high athletic director for the past five years at Hufford Junior High in Joliet.

Now he’s taking on a new challenge. He was hired July 5 as La Salle-Peru High School’s athletic director and started the position the next day.

The NewsTribune talked with Kuziel about his athletic career, his transition from the suburbs to small-town life and his plans as L-P’s athletic director.

Were you an athlete growing up?

Kuziel: When I was real little I played soccer. In junior high I wrestled and played football. I started swimming in high school and later started water polo. I swam through college and played water polo on a club team. I played water polo for about eight years on a club team after I graduated college. I went to Waubonsie Valley High School. I went to the College of DuPage for two years and swam at the junior college nationals. I got an All-America award and an honorable mention [in breaststroke and as part of a relay]. I swam at Benedictine University after that.

What drew you to the L-P job?

Kuziel: From everything I’ve seen and read, it’s a close-knit family. That’s something I’ve always been interested in. It’s something I’ve always preached as a coach and an athletic director. They have that foundation built, and I just want to expand on that.

What will it be like transitioning to a small town school?

Kuziel: One of the biggest things is the small town family type connection. That’s exactly what L-P seems to be about. The alumni seem to be extremely supportive in everything they do. That’s what I preached when I coached, ‘This is your team. This is your family. This is who we are. This is our identity and how we’re going to grow together.’ I think that’s been established [at L-P]. I’m looking to continue that and grow it even more.

What was your first impression of L-P?

Kuziel: I was impressed. Looking at the school and seeing the renovations, they talked me through some of the things they’ve done. They talked about how they’re going to be working on the baseball and soccer fields. It sounds like a lot of exciting things have happened and still are happening. It helps grow the program and show off the program. That look-good, feel-good type of things. I think the school is doing exactly what it needs to do for that.”

Superintendent Steve Wrobleski said the “Grind it out” philosophy established by former AD Dan Le and the coaching staff is important to the school. How will you continue that?

Kuziel: I’m just going to try to keep that whole philosophy going. I’d like to represent that and model that and have the coaches doing the same, then have the students have the same philosophy. We have to hold ourselves to high standards, and hopefully that translates to wins, but there’s a whole lot that goes into athletics besides just winning. You learn about yourself and working as a team.

What new ideas will you bring to L-P?

Kuziel: I’d like to continue that [”Grind it out”] philosophy they’re doing and keep expanding on the work they’ve already started. My goal is to see what needs to be adjusted. I’m not looking to come in and blow up the program and start all over. I want to see what they have in place, what areas we need to grow and what areas where we are excelling in. We’ll really emphasize those [areas where we’re excelling] to continue to move the program forward for all the sports programs.

How will your time as a junior high AD help your transition to being a high school AD?

Kuziel: A lot of it has to do with the organization and getting that skill set down, learning how to set out my time for making schedules, officials, talking to parents and talking to coaches then watching the sports grow and having all that play out. I think [Hufford] was a really good steppingstone to move to the high school level. For lack of a better phrase, I got my feet wet. I’ve grown our junior high sports. We’ve added a few more activities since I’ve been there. I saw what we started with and made adjustments and grew what we needed. I’m looking forward to doing the same thing this upcoming year.