From being a Buffalo High School Alumni to a teacher and two-sport coach, Josh Ortmann has truly lived in the halls of Buffalo High School. Mr. Ortmann has not only been a leader on the court and throughout the halls as a coach and teacher, but also as a teammate and student. During his time at Buffalo High School, Ortmann had one of the experiences that made a student never want to walk across the graduation stage and leave the halls of BHS.
“I was one of the students in high school where everyone talked about wanting to graduate, excited to go to college, and I didn’t want to leave high school,” Ortmann said. “I was able to play basketball, baseball, and football, had a really great friend group, and I wasn’t quite ready to give that up.”
Throughout high school, Ortmann found BHS to be a special place as a student, pulling him back in after college to continue following in the footsteps of those he looked up to during his time in the halls.
“There’s a million schools out there, and the grass isn’t always greener somewhere else,” Ortmann said. “We’ve got something really good here at Buffalo.”
Not only serving Buffalo as a staff member, Ortmann has also led the Boys Basketball team to many seasons of success, including a state appearance. For him, the way to lead athletes to success is focusing on the players personally rather than the skills that come with success.
“A question we ask our players every day is, ‘Are you a better basketball player than you are a person?’” Ortmann said. “And if the answer to that is yes, then we’ve done something seriously wrong. What type of character do you have? What type of internal, intrinsic motivation do we have? And how can we make others better while we have that type of mindset? Then, when we apply it to the sport, the skill pieces take care of themselves.”
While teaching varsity athletes how to improve their skills on the court or field is a major aspect of coaching, ensuring athletes have a selfless attitude can help support not only themselves but their whole team.
“So many people in sports get caught up on who’s scoring the touchdowns, or who’s getting the home runs,” Ortmann said. “We were fortunate to have a group of kids who didn’t care who scored; as a team we would ask ourselves ‘what are you doing to put the person next to you in a spot to be successful?’ which I think really is able to provide our players with a self-less attitude, and when we are there the scoreboard typically takes care of itself.”
Bison Boys Basketball has had a legacy of successful seasons under the leadership of Josh Ortmann. This success isn’t just from the players themselves but the mental training coaches have taught them to provide them with a mindset focused on their team rather than themselves individually.
“One of the phrases we talk about often is ‘success doesn’t happen by accident,’” Ortmann said. “It’s really hard to be good at your craft or good at your sport and there’s countless hours that get put into the weight room, get put into the gym, get put in outside of the season, 3:30-5:30 practice after school, and we’ve had kids that are completely bought in, and have been willing to put in the work that gives them a chance to be a varsity athlete. Now, when they get on the floor, they don’t care who gets the accolades, as long as a group, we find a way to do it together.”
For the boys’ basketball team, finding success isn’t about the numbers on the scoreboard; it’s about the growth of the players as people.
“People get so caught up in winning and losing, but it’s not always who has the will to win, but it’s who has the will to prepare,” Ortmann said.
