Sayville Grad, NFL Veteran Imparting Football Wisdom at Calhoun High School

Former New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Mike Buck had an illustrious career through high school and college at the University of Maine.

Buck set 27 Black Bears records, and drew the attention of a number of NFL scouts. In the sixth round of the 1990 NFL draft, Buck was selected 156th overall by the Saints.

Today, Buck has instilled a NFL-quality training regiment he hopes will produce a number of Divison-I scholarship players.

“I run the west coast offense,” said Buck, in his second year as offensive coordinator at Calhoun High School. “You can’t get too deep into it. Kids are limited on what they can do. But our guys here, they’re good kids. They like listening to me explain to them how to do it. It helps that they’re paying attention.”

Buck, a standout at Maine, credited his father as the biggest driving force behind his success. His choice to attend a Division I-AA school out of Sayville is one that may have paid off for him in the long run.

“What helped me, besides playing in the right kind of system in high school,” he said, “was that I paid half the way and they gave me a half scholarship because it was a 1-AA school. But in hindsight, I got there and I got to play for three and a half years. I was playing as a redshirt freshman. A lot of kids don’t get to play that long in college. That definitely helped me.” 

Like any true competitor, Buck remembers his short-comings, and the big losses more than anything. But he’s proud of his career and his right to feel like he could play with the best talent in the world

“The losses [stand out] believe it or not,” he said. “Losing the playoff games [at Maine] was probably the worst. It’s weird that that’s what you remember, but it was the same thing in the NFL. I played in the preseason, and I played pretty darn good. But there were two quarters, one in one game and another in a different game, that I didn’t play well, and I always kind of remembered it.”

Buck hails his days in the NFL as dream come true. In four years, he had a career completion percentage of 59.8. He threw five touchdown passes in 12 games, including a 63-yard bomb to Quinn Early in the fourth quarter of a 1993 game against Pittsburgh.

“I think the fact that the people I got to meet, the experience was second to none. I got to play with Dan Marino and guys like that. Even though I didn’t play a lot, knowing that I was physically and mentally as good as the guys that were there and I could play at that level meant a lot.”

He’s taken his experiences at the professional level, and passed them along to his players at Calhoun.

“I treat them like I was treated through the whole system,” he said. “At Calhoun High School, they go through the same drills and same offseason program as I did in the NFL. Hopefully that’ll translate to a lot of kids getting an opportunity to play at the next level, and hopefully for free.”