March 2, 2008 E-MAIL PRINT

Busy Busconi makes time for lax

by Bill Keefe/

Brian Busconi accepts an award at St. Mark's School in Southboro, Mass.

Brian Busconi accepts an award at St. Mark's School in Southboro, Mass.

From Harvard University to Tufts Medical School to Fenway Park to Iraq and Afghanistan, Dr. Brian Busconi has seen a lot, done a lot and learned a lot.
But as much as anything else, Busconi credits his days of wielding a stick — both lacrosse and hockey — for giving him his foundation in life.

“Sports provide the stage with which you learn the lessons of life,” said Busconi, 45. “It’s a big game, you make a bad pass and someone scores against you. How do you respond? You deal with pressure, with defeat. How you deal with those things is how you deal with things in life.”

Busconi is the chief of sports medicine and arthroscopy at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass. He is also the assistant medical director for the Boston Red Sox and is the team physician for five colleges: Holy Cross, Assumption, Clark, Nichols and Worcester State. He is the father of two boys, Liam, 10, and Aidan, 6, and the coach of two youth lacrosse teams in their hometown of Hopkinton, Mass. If that’s not enough, Busconi has been a member of the National Guard since 1986. Now a lieutenant colonel, he served a five-month stint in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

It seems like an impossible schedule to keep, but Busconi explains it in a few ways.

“They’re never going to put on a gravestone that he was a Type B person,” Busconi said.

He’s quick to credit his wife, Karolyn, and the people he works with. He only needs three hours of sleep a night and he truly loves what he does every day.

At Harvard, Busconi was a four-year midfielder for the highly ranked Crimson lacrosse team from 1982-85. He was also a four-year forward on the hockey team, which made the NCAA tournament in three of those years. He led the Crimson in scoring as a junior. Meanwhile, he was tackling pre-med courses at one of the world’s pre-eminent universities — only the second person at Harvard to do so while playing two varsity sports.

“Busco worked as hard in the classroom as he did on the athletic fields,” said Bill Cleary, Busconi’s hockey coach at Harvard. “He’s a very positive kid. He always had a big smile and a lot of energy. He’s done very well, which doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Busconi is grounded and modest. He calls himself “the luckiest guy in the world” between his family and the work that he loves. He brushes aside a question about his playing in the 1982 World Junior Hockey Championship, consisting of the best under-20 players in the world

“It wasn’t anything; it’s the college stuff that matters,” he said.

For someone who played hockey from his earliest days and was poised to play pro before an injury dashed those plans, Busconi had a special fondness for the game he didn’t pick up until high school at St. Mark’s in Southborough, Mass. — lacrosse.

“Hockey was stiff and there was a lot of pressure,” said Busconi, a member of St. Mark’s Hall of Fame. “Lacrosse was very enjoyable. It wasn’t the end-all and be-all.”

Through his four years in Cambridge, his roommates were lacrosse players — Mickey Voltz, Nick Potter and Tom Lochtefeld. Like many who play the game, Busconi was drawn to the speed and physical play. And he cited the “incredible camaraderie” that is built with teammates.

As he entered medical school, Busconi said he was singularly focused on pursuing sports medicine. His passion and experience has proven valuable. Not many doctors have come through the athletic world, he says, and having suffered some of the same injuries as his patients makes him able to understand what they’re going through and help them cope.

“A lot of times, an injury is not just physiological, it’s psychological,” Busconi said, “and a lot of times with athletes, the psychological is tougher.”

In everything he does, Busconi carries the team concept from sports, which certainly translates to his military experience.

Colonel Jack Hammond joined the service in 1981 and is the chief of staff for the Massachusetts National Guard.

“He can certainly make a great deal more money treating civilian patients at a civilian practice than the paltry sum we pay him,” said Hammond, who has been treated on occasion by Busconi. “He often does some work on non-paid status just to help.

“He believes in what he’s doing. He’s more than met his commitment. It speaks to his character that he has over 20 years in and he still stays with us.”

Busconi was in Fort Myers, Fla., for 10 days of Red Sox spring training in February. His kids get a kick out of being around the players and on the field. But he tries to keep perspective between the guys in uniform playing a game and the guys in uniform defending our country.

“They’re the real heroes,” Busconi said.

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