Craig Buzea

Craig Buzea is the head football coach at Crown Point High School in Indiana and a 2023 inductee into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. With more than three decades of head coaching experience and 275-plus career victories, Buzea brings an extensive record of program development, postseason success, and player advancement to his coaching instruction.

Buzea has guided three different programs to state championship games in their states’ largest classifications: Portage High School in Indiana’s Class 5A in 1994, Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Illinois’ Class 8A in 2014, and Crown Point in Indiana’s Class 6A in 2023. After taking over at Crown Point in 2021, he led the Bulldogs to the program’s first state championship game in just his third season, finishing 13–1 in 2023. His head coaching career also includes a three-year tenure at Michigan City High School.

His résumé includes at least 18 Coach of the Year honors, with recognition from the Indiana Football Coaches Association’s Region 1, the Northwest Indiana Times, the Post-Tribune, and the Chicago Tribune/Southtown Star. He has also been selected to coach in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the Indiana North All-Star game. In 2023, he earned Colts/NFL Coach of the Week recognition. More than 200 of his players have gone on to play college football, and five of his teams have appeared in the USA Today national Top 25.

A graduate of Lakeland College, Buzea earned 12 varsity letters across football, basketball, and baseball, receiving all-conference recognition in all three sports. He was named Lakeland’s Athlete of the Year in 1983 and inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. He holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Lakeland and a master’s degree from Indiana University.

Buzea’s offensive teaching centers on “multiple simplicity”—presenting varied looks and complementary plays while keeping the system manageable for players. His Crown Point Offense instruction covers gap schemes and tags, pre-snap and post-snap RPOs, play-action passes, screens, movement passes, and creative variations. His approach gives coaches practical ways to connect the running and passing games, build answers to defensive adjustments, and expand their offense around a consistent foundation.