Bruce Lazaruk moving on but plans to coach football again next fall
Bruce Lazaruk graduated from Glassboro State (now Rowan University) in 1974, and he has been a football coach each year since. He's looking to keep the streak intact, although in a different place.
Bruce Lazaruk graduated from Glassboro State (now Rowan University) in 1974, and he has been a football coach each year since. He's looking to keep the streak intact, although in a different place.
Lazaruk resigned as head coach of Wildwood after last season, but it had nothing to do with his 1-19 mark in two seasons guiding the Warriors.
He said he moved to the Wildwood area because of a family situation.
"That family situation changed, so I will probably be moving back to the Burlington County, Camden County, or Mercer County area," Lazaruk said. "This is a family decision, not a football decision."
He said most of his family lives closer to those areas. He was hoping to turn things around at Wildwood, one of the most difficult challenges in South Jersey.
The Warriors went 6-4 in 2012, but the last winning season before that was 6-4 in 1999. There were a couple of years between 1999 and 2012 in which there was no varsity team because of a shortage of players.
Still, despite this year's 0-10 mark, which included a 34-32 loss at Maple Shade in the Warriors' most competitive game, Lazaruk said he loved his experience coaching at Wildwood.
"We had people who gave everything they had," he said.
That is something Lazaruk has done for more than four decades.
A graduate of Riverside, he missed his senior season because of a knee injury suffered that summer playing baseball. He was a catcher and took a hard slide to the knee.
"I was like Buster Posey," he said, referring to the San Francisco Giants catcher who suffered a similar injury in a play at the plate.
Lazaruk went to Glassboro State thinking he'd be a quarterback but quickly was moved to fullback. He was a starting center his last two seasons and then became a high school football assistant the next season.
He has been hooked ever since.
Besides Wildwood, he has also served as head coach at Hammonton, Rancocas Valley, and Riverside, in addition to being an assistant at several places.
A retired teacher, Lazaruk has continued to spend much of his sports time either coaching football or umpiring baseball, not the easiest of professions. Yet he is passionate about both, especially coaching.
So once again he is dusting off his resumé and getting ready to offer his services. There should be plenty of suitors. It doesn't have to be a head coaching position. Lazaruk just wants to stay involved in the game.
"I am looking for a job," he said. "I will send out my resumé and make it known there is an offensive line coach out there who has coordinated on both sides of the ball."
Not to mention a former head coach who guided Rancocas Valley to the 1987 South Jersey Group 3 championship and took Hammonton to the 1983 South Jersey Group 2 final, where the Blue Devils suffered their only loss of the season, to Salem.
Don't tell Lazaruk that coaching in the old days was any better than now.
"I am not one of those guys who says coaching is not the same," he said. "I think the kids who play the sport are terrific, and football players are a special group of character kids."
He is a member of the South Jersey Football Hall of Fame and wants to remain in coaching for one simple reason - he believes he has something to offer.
"I love the game and have been enamored with it since I began playing," he said.
His playing days began around the age of 10, and every fall since, Lazaruk has been on a football field in one capacity or another.
Now 63, he's been around so long that he has coached youngsters whose fathers he also coached.
"It's been a great run," he said.
Then, making sure not to speak in the past tense, Lazaruk added: "But it's not over."
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