Assistant coach Kevin Frady overheard last year’s All-American and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Don Czyz pay his former catcher a compliment when he returned to visit the team earlier this year.

“Buck, I hated throwing to you last year, but I love throwing to you this year,” Czyz said.

Sophomore catcher Buck Afenir has almost completed his 180-degree turnaround from the freshman he was last year to the starting catcher he is this season. After splitting time behind the plate with senior Dylan Parzyk in 2006, Afenir has taken over the reigns this season.

In the 33 games he started and the 42 in which he saw time last year, the Atascadero, Calif. native hit just .278 with four home runs and 16 RBI. Barely halfway through the 2007 campaign, Afenir has passed his home run mark (5) and RBI (23) total and is hitting a solid .307.

“I think the turning point this year was when coach Price came up to me and was like ‘What’s the deal? What’s going on?’ at the beginning of the year when I was doing well, but I wasn’t really breaking out or anything,” Afenir said. “He told me to go 100 percent, ‘Nobody’s going to get mad at you if go 100 percent and mess up.’ And that’s what I was afraid of — messing up and getting yanked out of the lineup. Now I know that as long as I’m going as hard as I can that coach Price is behind me. That’s a good feeling.”

Evidently, it’s a really good feeling. Even when coach Price rested his catcher in the final game of the Texas series last weekend, he chose to keep Afenir’s bat in the lineup as the designated hitter. Afenir responded, going 3-for-4 in his first collegiate start in that spot.

Price’s confidence in Afenir was apparent long before he took a chance on the sophomore as the designated hitter. In fact, Price is the primary reason Afenir is a Jayhawk.

Two years ago, Afenir was recruited by many schools during his senior year, one of which was the three-hour drive from home, Stanford. From little-league through high school, Afenir had been coached by his dad, Steve. Price liked that idea, knowing that meant Afenir grew up in a baseball family. Steve Afenir, on the other hand, didn’t care much for Price’s interest.

“I wouldn’t say he got bent out of shape,” Afenir said. “But at first when I first started talking to coach Price, he was like ‘No. I’m not sending my son 1,600 miles away.’ ”

Admittedly a mama’s boy, Afenir said his mom, Beth, wasn’t wild about her son moving to the Midwest either. But when the family met Price and took a campus visit, the decision for Afenir to become a Jayhawk was much easier.

Adjusting to life half the country away from home wasn’t quite as easy. Afenir confessed to dealing with bouts of homesickness.

“It was just weird. I had so many different things I was always worrying about — like I had a girlfriend back home,” Afenir said. “That was just so tough with the long distance, and I was trying to keep in touch with everybody back home. It’s weird, but you’ve kind of just got to let it go.”

The difficulty of balancing that and preparing to be a starting catcher in the Big 12 Conference caught up to the freshman. After being able to rely on raw talent in high school, as he put it, Afenir’s level of play and the offensive power that Price recruited him for became inconsistent.

Price said that a lot of the time the players with the most intelligence are the ones who beat themselves up the most. The happy-go-lucky attitude that Frady uses to describe Afenir’s attitude in 2007 was much different in 2006.

“Last year, I’d have some little streak and then suck, then have another little streak,” Afenir said. “I think this year consistency is the main thing. It’s just fun. Knowing that I’m out there with my best friends is really helpful.”

Now, the guy who likes to take naps before games and thinks of his mom watching during televised games, is hitting his stride. He no longer feels threatened by the thought of being replaced by another of the Jayhawks’ four catchers. Although Frady and Price have never completely ruled that out and even discuss the need for improvement in his throwing. However, besides having to break Afenir of calling him “dude” and “bro,” Frady is happy with the sophomore and his showing of the confidence he believes his catchers should have.

“You see him in the locker room, he’s always got a smile, always got that devilish grin on his face and you wonder what the heck is going on upstairs,” Frady said. “But I think that’s what makes him successful.”

Kansan sportswriter Alissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.

— Edited by Kelly Lanigan