By Joe Santoliquito
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
(from the Philadelphia
Inquirer)
Mike Busza finds the time - somehow - to manage it all.
First there are the physical-education and health classes he teaches at Radnor High School. Then he goes into coaching mode after school, where Busza is the head lacrosse coach and an assistant football coach. And one night a week, he takes classes toward a master's degree in education and administration.
On weekends, Busza is a professional athlete, playing for the Philadelphia Wings lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League, which includes eight teams from Toronto to Philadelphia.
Busza, a 1991 Ridley High graduate and all-American lacrosse player at Penn State, is in his third season with the Wings.
"I've learned to actually say 'no' to some people, and I'm not really like that," said Busza, 27. "I have football and lacrosse going on, and my lacrosse kids are playing all year round. It gets overbearing sometimes. I just have to take a step back sometimes, but it's fun.
"What we've done at Radnor has been a nice pleasant surprise. There are days when I feel beat, and the kids pump me up and I feel great."
Busza is a walking curiosity to the students.
A 1996 Penn State graduate with a degree in exercise and sports science, Busza is in his third year of teaching at Radnor and fourth year as a coach at the school.
He constantly is asked how much he gets paid for the Wings and what it's like to play in front of 18,000 screaming fans at the First Union Center.
Playing for the Wings has been a unique experience. But Busza wouldn't be able to do it without the full-time job at Radnor.
Peter Sampson, the president of the Radnor Lacrosse Youth Association, gave Busza a call one day just after he graduated from Penn State about coaching at Radnor. Busza was 23 at the time and had never been a head coach before.
"At first, I didn't know I could be a head coach and I was a little reluctant," Busza recalled. "Normally, the protocol is you have to be an assistant and then go on to be a head coach. I felt, 'Why not, go for it.' "
Busza inherited a Radnor team that was 2-13 the previous season, and in his first year, Busza guided the Red Raiders to a 5-11 mark. His second season, the Red Raiders were 9-8 and last year Radnor won the Central League - the school's first title in boys' lacrosse.
Just as Busza was beginning to guide Radnor toward respectability, he was drafted by the Wings in the second round in 1997.
"I didn't even know there was an actual draft, no one even told me I was drafted," Busza said. "I heard it through the grapevine and there were a lot of lacrosse people and some people read it in the newspaper. They notified me and I tried out."
The first year, the 1997 season, Busza didn't make it. The 5-foot-6, 155-pound Busza concedes he did not pursue the tryout as hard as he should have. He prepared a week before the tryouts and he had to adjust to the indoor game.
He progressed to the last cuts and found out he didn't make it. At the time, Busza was teaching kindergarten through sixth grade at East Bradford Elementary School in West Chester. The kids each day would ask him about his tryouts.
"Now I had to tell this whole school I didn't make the team, I wasn't in condition, I didn't prepare, I had to tell that story 40 times," Busza said. "I look back and to tell the truth, I'm glad I didn't make the team. I learned you have to work for everything. There's no such thing as a handout.
"My game is to outwork everyone else and to be faster than everyone else. I just wasn't. I promised all the little kids I would make it the next year and I did."
He has been a stalwart on the Wings these last three years.
The money is comfortable. Busza said a player can make anywhere between $350 and $1,200 a game, which depends on experience and how important you are to the team. Paul and Gary Gait, who were all-Americans at Syracuse, make a good living off professional lacrosse, but otherwise, most players in the league have jobs to support their hobby.
"It's nice little supplemental income," Busza said. "I'm getting paid something I really like to do. Especially when we play in Philadelphia. The fans are great. They're so loyal, we'll have 3,000 to 4,000 fans travel with us. . . . It feels good to be appreciated and that people are actually paying attention to you."