Former state champion coach back to lead the Hounds
By RICHIE HALL
As the sun set on Carmel Stadium Tuesday evening, Kevin Wright was doing something he hadn’t done in over a decade: coaching the Greyhounds through a summer workout.
Wright coached Carmel from 2010 to 2014, leading the ‘Hounds to a state championship in 2011 and two more state finals appearances. Wright resigned from Carmel to coach at IMG Academy in Florida and joined the Indiana University coaching staff for a few years, but now he is back with the Greyhounds.
Speaking with The Reporter after that Tuesday workout, Wright said he was experiencing “a little bit of déja vu. A lot of things are similar and a lot of things have changed. There’s some familiarity to the program, but the kids are new and the coaches are new for the most part.
“In a lot of ways, it’s starting over,” said Wright. In 2014, Carmel played in the Class 6A state championship game. “Now, the goal is to win Game 1 and go from there,” he said. “Got to get the standard back.”
The summer workouts are coming to an end this week, as the first IHSAA practices begin on Monday. Wright said the Greyhounds have “come a long way,” but also said there was a long way to go.
“I think they’re starting to believe and starting to buy in to what we’re trying to get them to do,” said Wright. “Sometimes, that’s a slow process.”
Wright made the point during his players during the Tuesday workout that even though it’s a practice situation, the players are competing. He called that a “normal practice,” noting the back-and-forth between Carmel’s offensive and defensive players. The workout finished with a two-minute scoring drill; Wright said “it was good to see guys compete when there’s a little pressure on them to get lined up and make plays.”
Players are also competing for playing time as well: Wright said there’s nobody out there who is guaranteed a position once games begin on Aug. 22.
“Our coaches have done a really good job of grading practice,” said Wright. “You’re held to a standard every practice. Little things count. You heard me talk about that, attention to details. Sometimes when things aren’t going real well, you lose grasp of what’s really important. When you start to compete, that’s when you got to learn to play with control, play with intent. Those are just little things that you build during the course of the summer that you can do.”
Wright said that one of the goals of the workout is teaching the players how to practice.
“There’s a certain mentality in learning how to practice and really compete,” said Wright. You flip on a college practice or an NFL practice, you see it. In high school, they haven’t gotten to that point yet for the most part. Just teaching them how we want to practice, how fast we want to practice, how we want to compete, but keep guys protected, all that is part of the process.”
Wright said the team voted on its captains for this year, and Carmel chose six captains, all seniors. The coach noted that having the senior leaders buy in to the system is key, “because they’re going to have the most sense of urgency,” he said.
“This is a big year for them, because the last two years have been tough,” said Wright. “Once they get a taste of what it’s like to win a big game, I think that’ll really help just propel and back up all the things that we’re trying to enforce.”
Carmel will have a Blue/Gold Scrimmage at 10 a.m. next Saturday (Aug. 9), then travel to Zionsville Aug. 15 for a Friday night scrimmage. The Greyhounds travel to Fishers on Aug. 22 to begin the regular season.