Bruzdewicz resigns as baseball coach at C-M
It began as a backache that wouldn’t go away. The pain got so bad for Tim Bruzdewicz that he went to see a doctor.
Then another.
When they finally got the diagnosis down, Bruzdewicz found he had a staph infection that would require surgery and a 33-day stay in the hospital.
It also required him to give up the head baseball coaching position at Canon-McMillan High School. The 54-year-old Bruzdewicz spent seven years as head coach until he handed in his resignation last week.
He led the Big Macs to the PIAA Class 6A championship in 2018 after a 10-3 victory over Bensalem in the finals. Unofficially, Bruzdewicz had a 72-51 record, including 11-4 in the playoffs.
“The doctors say it’s a 3-to-6-month recovery period,” said Bruzdewicz, who was hired for the 2015 season. “I lost a ton of weight. It all started March 27 after me and my wife went to a wedding. My lower back started hurting real bad. That’s where the infection was.”
The pain was so severe, it limited Bruzdewicz to coaching just one game, the season opener against Bethel Park.
“I went to the Mount Lebanon game and had a buddy of mine pick me up,” said Bruzdewicz. “It was maybe 45, 50 degrees and I was sweating bullets. My assistant coach Scott Wolf came over to me and said you need to go home. I told my wife we need to go to the ER and that night I was operated on for 13 hours.”
The road back has been challenging. Bruzdewicz’s weight fell nearly 30 pounds and most of it was muscle.
“Here I am, 195 pounds, no muscle and a beerbelly,” Bruzdewicz. “Right now, I am on heavy antibiotics every day. They took my stitches out and it ran from to top of my neck to the base of my spine.”
Bruzdewicz looks for the little signs of improvement over the weeks.
“I’m left-handed and I couldn’t raise my arm to say hi to somebody,” Bruzdewicz said. “Now, I have full range of motion with my arm and I’m up to three-pound dumbells. I know that doesn’t sound like much but next week I go on to five-pound dumbells.”
Bruzdewicz realized he was in no shape to remain as coach. Wolf ran the team in his absence and Bruzdewicz acted as an advisor. He wanted to submit his resignation now so that there would be ample time to hire a coach for the fall season.
“He’s had some issues,” said Canon-McMillan athletic director Frank Vulcano. “Right now, he’s resigned, the position is open and we’re going to hire someone new.
“Absolutely, we’re sorry to lose him. He brought us a state championship a few years back and he will be missed, for sure.”
Bruzdewicz would like to coach again, when the time is right and his body can take it.
“I don’t want to hamstring them,” Bruzdewicz said of the C-M administration. “I have no problem with Canon-McMillan. They treated me great.”