Sean Bruso has breathed confidence and unity over the course of his 10-year coaching career in Section VI Football (Courtesy of Dave DeLuca)
*** As seen in Lancaster Sun, Sept. 10, 2020 edition ***
By Joe Kraus
When Sean Bruso reflected on his 10 years coaching in Section VI football, he said it’s felt more like 30 years – but in a positive way. His ascension from the youthful coach and broadcaster to one of the most trusted voices in the Lancaster High School varsity locker room has been a whirlwind of events and emotions.
“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of some great programs,” said Bruso, who is heading into his fifth season as a varsity assistant coach with the Legends, after joining during the 2016 postseason. “I’ve been very, very blessed to have been around some great coaches that have taught me and mentored me and molded me. You learn from all of them.”
“He has an extreme attention to detail,” said Lancaster Legends head coach Eric Rupp. “Every little X’s-and-O’s and scheme has to be perfect. He’s a student of the game.”
With a passionate attitude, Bruso cares for each player’s individual and team successes as if they were his little brothers. Take for instance the week leading up to the Legends’ 2018 Section VI Class AA championship victory against Bennett. After a late touchdown by the Tigers prevented a fifth consecutive victory in the regular season, Bruso emphasized to the Legends how playing at “The Ralph” is desired by all programs.
“He was fired up the entire week,” said Ethan Jurkowski, currently a freshman at Edinboro University. “That really showed me how much he cared. Lancaster football builds champions for life and Sean is a part of it.”
The son of John and Linda and older brother of Megan, young Sean didn’t consider playing football at first. He played hockey year-round for most of his childhood before wanting to try something else. After a brief stint with baseball, Bruso tried out for Lancaster’s varsity football team as a junior. At 125 pounds, the chances he would start were slim – but Bruso simply wanted to be a member.
“I wanted to be a part of what that tradition was,” the Class of 2007 alumnus said. “I’ve been going to Lancaster games my whole life and I just wanted to be a part of it… to say, ‘You can go out there and you can do this.’”
Being a student-athlete opened the broadcasting door for Bruso too. As a high school student, Bruso contributed to WGR 550’s Inside High School Sports program, interned with Time Warner Cable Sports Channel and announced the former Harvard Cup football games on 1440 WJJL. With Rich Kozak, Roger Weiss and coach Art Serotte, Bruso saw the Buffalo City Schools teams play a different brand of football every weekend, fulfilling his love for tradition and nostalgia in sports.
Rehired by Time Warner Cable as their sideline reporter for the 2009 NYSPHSAA state championships at the Carrier Dome, he met two of his closest friends and coaching confidants, Eric Jantzi and Rick Tomm of North Tonawanda. His passion shifted from broadcasting to coaching. While completing his Bachelor’s degree in communications at Buffalo State College, Bruso was hired as the Lumberjacks’ modified football coach in 2010, where he stayed through the 2012 season before he left for Alden.
“It was following your passion and I wanted to coach football,” said Bruso, who has coached youth hockey and was a NT basketball assistant coach in the past also. “I really just wanted to coach, and I still do, and a lot of my life decisions have centered around what can I do to coach.”
His eagerness for self-improvement garnered the respect of Jantzi and Tomm quickly.
“For him, it wasn’t just about getting wins on modified,” said Tomm. “It was showing (the players), ‘This is what it takes to be great and this is what we do and we’re going to learn it in seventh grade.’ He treats people the right way. He’s positive, prepared and enthusiastic. What more could you want out of someone?”
“I’d take Sean on my coaching staff any day of the week,” added Jantzi, who reunited with Bruso at Springville in 2014. “He connects with the kids well and gets them psychologically prepared on the field and in life.”
But being a football coach wore him down to the point where Bruso warns people the pursuit of excellence at a constant rate is not healthy.
By the end of the 2015 season with the Griffins, Bruso took a break from coaching after experiencing eating and sleeping issues. After a few doctor visits, Bruso was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in Fall 2016.
Looking back, Bruso admitted it took some time to fully accept his diagnosis.
“There were times where it got real and there were times where you sit there and say, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Am I going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life?’” he said. “But then you realize that there’s other people out there, who are dealing with similar (illnesses) but other people have way more heavier things they’re dealing with. And you can kind of draw perspective a little bit that everybody has something they’re dealing with.
You just kind of have to manage it differently and change the way you live your life.”
Shortly after his diagnosis, Bruso attended a coaching clinic, where motivational speaker Dr. Kevin Elko spoke. There, Bruso heard a saying he still draws upon daily: “Don’t look for blessings to come into your life, look to be a blessing in someone else’s life.”
“It’s that pay-it-forward part, where you can say, ‘OK. We’re all in this together, whatever it is you’re dealing with, but I’ll be here to help you through it,’” Bruso explained. “That’s kind of how this whole thing works. And I think if this whole world worked that way, things would be a lot better.”
Outside of coaching, Bruso serves as the Assistant Recreation Coordinator at the Renaissance Campus located in West Seneca, an in-patient addiction center for adolescents. Being part of the “fun guys” is a role with many rewards.
“If I can go in there and have a positive attitude and try to give you some things and do some different activities or leisure outlets to help get through your day and help get ready for their next step of life, then I can say I am doing my job,” he said. “The goal at the end of the day is to get ready to face the hard-shifts when they leave.”
Even in the off-season, Bruso is never off the clock from educating himself and others about football. He helps Rupp and the Lancaster staff by sending highlight reels from Hudl and articles he’s read, and counsels players struggling with the pressures of being a student-athlete.
“It’s not just an obsession in the fall, it’s a year-round lifestyle for him and we’re grateful to have him on staff,” said Rupp.
“I look to (Eric) as the strongest person I know,” said Bruso, who added all his former coaches have made him a better person. “I look to him for strength because he gives that to all of us and he gives all those positive measures of just being ‘rock solid’ is inspiring (to me).”
On Sept. 9, the NYSPHSAA announced the return of scholastic football was delayed to March 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns and state guidelines. But like he’s tried to do since the pandemic began in March, Bruso urged Western New York student-athletes to be prepared and control what can be controlled.
As Bruso relayed what his first coaching boss, former Maryvale coach Bob Mullen, had said in practices, “I will prepare, for one day my chance will come.”
“I hope they take with them that faith, hope and love will get you through hard times and that things have a way of working out in the end,” he added. “And, we don’t know how that is going to shake out yet and we don’t know how that is going to shape the rest of their lives. But, things have a strange way of working out if you do things the right way.”
Competing for sectional and state championships and moments in between have all been close to his heart. But riding the waves of the season alongside his programs is the pinnacle of why he loves his job.
“They took a little kid with a dream and made that a reality,” said Bruso, whose next goals are to find job stability, complete his master’s degree at Buffalo State and start his own family in the future. “I’m very grateful for everybody who was able to put up with me for a little bit of time.”
Joe Kraus is a Canisius College 2020 graduate and Journalism major whose work has appeared in the Twin Cities Sun and other local publications in Western New York. If you have any comments or an idea for a future story, please send to joekrausnt@gmail.com
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