Former Bruin coach misses coaching, but not everything that comes with it
Tim Burgess is spending more time with this family this winter than he ever has before.
He got to watch his daughter, Ericka, play her sophomore basketball season at Ottawa High School.
And Burgess is a lot less stressed than he’s been in 20 years.
And it all came about because of what happened nearly 11 months ago. It was that day, March 11, he was dismissed as the head varsity boys’ basketball coach at St. Bede Academy after five seasons.
Does he miss coaching? Does he miss basketball?
“I’m not going to lie, I miss it,” he said. “Once you’re a coach, you’re always a coach, I think.”
He said he misses the kids, missed the practices and misses Friday nights.
But he doesn’t miss everything.
He doesn’t have to worry about the “politics” that come with the job and parents “who are upset their son’s not getting enough playing time.”
And he no longer has to dwell over the losses that can rack a coach’s brain for days.
“That’s the bad thing, you remember your losses. The wins as soon as they’re done, you look to the next game. The losses just linger,” he said.
Burgess, a St. Bede graduate, whose oldest daughter, Bridget, is a senior at St. Bede, still feels the sting of his firing.
He said he never received the yearly evaluation he was promised by school officials at St. Bede and the only feedback he ever received was positive. Then he went into the school building one day to check on his mail and was told by Superintendent Ted Struck he would not be brought back to coach the next season.
At the time of his dismissal, he told the media he wanted to tell the truth and stand up for other coaches who face similar circumstances.
“I’ll stand up for what’s right and I feel like I did that. I never did anything wrong. It would have been much easier to go by the wayside to not have your name splattered in the sports pages.”
He did the same thing before being let go after seven seasons at Ottawa High School in 2002, where he said a board member told him he’d go after his job if didn’t play his son more.
“I told him my dad taught me morals at age 7 and to go for it. He did come after me,” Burgess said.
The board member wasn’t able to get him that year when the Pirates had a successful season, but when they went 6-20 in 2002, “that’s the year they got me.”
Basketball was not only a big part of his life, but something his family enjoyed as well. Not coaching this season has helped him get his priorities straightened out, he said.
“When you’re coaching, your schedules are surrounded by what I’ve got to do. Now their schedules are the priority, and that’s what it should be,” he said.
The former St. Bede coach is certainly not surprised by the success the Bruins, 15-9, have been enjoying this season under first-year coach Terry Nelson. He played through the growing pains of a young squad that went 6-20 a year ago.
“I knew what was coming. I knew the future was bright. I went to grade school games and tried to encourage these kids to come to St. Bede. I’m not a bit surprised,” he said.
Twice bitten, would he ever coach again one day?
“Absolutely not, no way,” he said without hesitating.
Parting shots: We’re not supposed to cheer from the pressbox, but as Jack Buck once elegantly said, forgive me when I stand and applaud Friday when former Princeton Tiger team captain Mike Sitterly is honored by his former classmates. Sitt was the ultimate teammate, a guy you just couldn’t help to love. He played the game and life the right away.
St. Bede alum J.A. Happ has reported early to the Philadelphia Phillies’ Spring camp in Clearwater, Fla. I hear it’s a little unseasonable cool this week, but I’d still love to be there.
Kevin Hieronymus is the BCR Sports Editor. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com.
