JOHN KUCELA
VARSITY BOYS BASKETBALL HEAD COACH
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS
Coach Kucela comes to Lakeside High School after spending one year at Grovetown High School as the varsity boys’ assistant basketball coach. Prior to Grovetown High School, Coach Kucela was at Butler High School in Richmond County where he was the boys head basketball coach from 2006-2009. Coach Kucela also coached at Butler High School from 1995-1998 and posted a 58-21 record with two state tournament appearances. They won the region championship in the 1996-97 season and were region runner-up in the 1995-96 season.
This is Coach Kucela’s 33rd year in the educational field. He has been a college athletic director, high school assistant principal; health/physical education teacher, special education teacher and coach while in the educational field these past 32 years. Coach Kucela has coached basketball for 28 years with 22 of those years as a varsity head coach. Coach Kucela has posted over 300 wins as a head coach and over 400 wins as both head coach and assistant coach before coming to the Panther basketball program.
Prior to Lakeside, Grovetown, and Butler High School, Coach Kucela was Assistant Principal and Basketball Coach at Washington-Wilkes High School and also coached football at Hephzibah High School. Coach Kucela came to Hephzibah High School from Sevier County High School in Sevierville, Tennessee. While at Sevier County High School, he was Assistant Principal, Head Boys Basketball Coach, and Head Tennis Coach for the Smoky Bears. Coach Kucela’s 1999-2000 Boys Basketball Team finished as District 4-AAA Runner-up and advanced to the State Sectionals held at the University of Tennessee. The 1999 SCHS football team won the Tennessee 5-A State Football Championship.
Coach Kucela was Athletic Director and Health/Physical Education Director at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia from 1994-1995. Before Truett-McConnell College, he was Head Basketball Coach at T.W. Josey High School for nine years and at Louisville High School for two years. While at T.W. Josey and Louisville, he coached basketball, football, soccer, cross-country and track. Several of his teams received both regional and state recognition, and many of his players went on to college with athletic and/or academic scholarships.
Kucela’s first coaching positions started at Georgia Military College and the University of South Carolina at Aiken where he was Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach from 1978 to 1983. He was also able to work on the original staff of the BC/All-Stars Basketball camps while at Georgia Military College.
Kucela is a graduate of Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, Georgia, with an Associate degree in General Studies, and received the Bachelor of Science degree in Health/Physical Education from the University of South Carolina at Aiken. He later received the Master’s and Specialist degrees in both Health/Physical Education and Administration/Supervision from Augusta College (now - Augusta State University) in Augusta, Georgia. Coach Kucela is currently finishing up his Doctoral Degree Dissertation in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
A 1973 Glenn Hills High School Graduate, Coach Kucela is married to the former Cindy Bass (Butler High School Class of 1979), also of Augusta. Cindy is a 1984 graduate of the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy. Coach Kucela and his wife are the proud parents of their seven year old daughter, Kayla Nicole.