By KARL E. PEARSON - Staff Writer
ASHTABULA — John Buskirk was many things to many people.
Hundreds of people showed just how much he meant to them Friday at SS. John and Paul High School’s Mahoney Gymnasium during his calling hours.
A steady stream of mourners made their way past dozens of photographs, videos and other remembrances to share their condolences with the loved ones of Buskirk, the former SJP and Harvey high school teacher and head football and track coach who died Jan. 10 after a four-year battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The line of visitors gradually increased in length and depth as the calling hours moved along from 2 p.m. to their scheduled completion at 8 p.m.
Funeral services for the 33-year-old Buskirk will be held 11 a.m. today at Assumption Catholic Church, 594 W. Main St., Geneva.
Perhaps Matt Peet, a 1992 St. John High School graduate who was a football teammate of Buskirk, who was a 1993 St. John alumnus, summed it up best.
“John was the best student for his teachers,” Peet said. “Ask his coaches, and they would tell you he was their hardest-working player. Ask his students, and they would tell you he was their best teacher. Talk to his players, and they would say John was their best coach.”
Tributes to Buskirk came from all over the country. Among the most evident was a University of Florida football helmet signed by head coach Urban Meyer, a 1982 St. John product who had befriended Buskirk and his wife, Jessica, after learning of Buskirk’s illness. Meyer, who hosted the Buskirks at spring practice in April 2008, also sent a signed football from the Gators’ national championship game victory Jan. 8 over the University of Oklahoma.
Inscribed on the helmet was the message “Buzzstrong. Memories Live On. Go Heralds, and Go Gators.”
Buskirk was also adorned in the colors of SJP and Florida on Friday, dressed in an SJP sweat shirt and a Florida baseball cap.
Tears and solemn expressions were in evidence in different portions of the gymnasium, but smiles and laughter were equally present. Virtually every picture of Buskirk, even in his final battle with ALL, showed him smiling.
“I’ve set up this gym for a lot of different things, but I never expected to be setting it up for this,” said SJP head football coach Jim Timonere, who was an assistant for Buskirk when he headed the Herald program and then signed him on as an assistant for the past two years. “This is a great tribute to John.”
Above all, expressions of how Buskirk had affected the lives of people in Ashtabula and Lake counties, and beyond, were evident.
“I think the greatest strength he had was the cohesiveness he brought to our team,” said Joe Dinallo, a 2004 Harvey graduate who played defensive line for Buskirk when he was the Red Raiders’ head coach. “He gave us plenty to think about and taught us to never disrespect a teammate, to play together, to always put it on the line.”
Buskirk probably had an even greater impact on Dinallo off the field.
“I was always thankful to him because he helped me when I got in trouble at school,” said Dinallo, who has gone on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ashland University and is working on a master’s degree at John Carroll University. “He wrote a letter in my defense. He kept me in school. I might have gone to college, but I definitely wouldn’t have stayed.”
Rob McGruder started teaching at Harvey in 2002, the same year Buskirk arrived from SJP to begin a four-year career as the head coach there, which was cut short after the 2005 season when he was first diagnosed with ALL. McGruder, who has stayed on the staff of current Harvey coach Devlin Culliver, and Buskirk have remained fast friends.
“I came in with John when he first started, and we learned the school and the kids together,” McGruder said. “We always found each other every day to talk.
“John was a tough guy, but he was a fair guy. He was always fair and honest with the kids, and the kids always knew they could talk to him. If we had a problem on the field, it stayed on the field. Everything about him was so genuine.”
Steffon Portik also played for Buskirk at Harvey before he graduated in 2004.
“His personality and his style were the best thing that could have happened at Harvey,” said Portik, in his senior year as a communications major at Thiel College. “Our slogan was ‘Faith and Family.’ He helped everyone stay focused and helped them realize their maximum potential. If he saw anyone was off track, he got you back on track.”
Retired athletic director Don Cannell has been around SJP in all its manifestations since the 1950s. He got to know Buskirk as a new teacher.
“I was here for John’s first year (1997-98),” he said. “We quickly realized what a super young man he was. He was tough, but the kids loved him. He showed signs right away he would be a great teacher. I told Paul Kopko (St. John’s retired Hall of Fame football coach) once that John would have fit in great with our staff from back in the old days.”
Buskirk resonated with young and old alike.
“I played for John (as a guard and defensive end), and I also coached with him,” said 2002 St. John graduate Ryan Looman, an assistant girls basketball coach for Nick Iarocci at SJP. “He was always very intense and very enthusiastic. He loved football too, but it was more important that our kids be good people and good teammates. He was always so willing to teach a lesson.”
Looman said he will be unable to attend Buskirk’s funeral because he has a coaching commitment but he also knew Buskirk would understand.
“He’d have said, ‘Just go and play,’” Looman said.
Two of Buskirk’s Gettysburg College teammates, Gordon Morrison of West Orange, N.J., and Steven Carew of Long Island, N.Y., also remembered him fondly. They will be two of his pallbearers today.
“John was a great person,” Morrison said. “He was real. You knew exactly where you stood with him. He always fought to play the game, even after two knee surgeries. He always left it all out there on the field.”
“John had the biggest heart in the world,” said Carew, who was also a fraternity brother with Buskirk and Morrison before they graduated in 1997. “He always made up for his lack of ability in effort. I hate the term giving 110 percent, but John always gave 110 percent.”
It is almost difficult for his friends to realize Buskirk couldn’t overcome leukemia. Nevertheless, they believe he lived his relatively brief life to the fullest.
“John did everything he needed to do,” Morrison said. “Everything ended for him on his own terms.”
“John was a fighter to the end. He fought (leukemia) with everything he had,” said Carew, who was with Buskirk in his final days. “I’m proud of the way he fought; he fought it to the end.”
