Life’s Been a Roller Coaster Ride for Gus Cruz
Gus Cruz began a troubling 2013 season for the UCONN football program, going about his business as a normal twenty-two year old. For the offensive lineman who grew up in the Dominican Republic, a nine game losing streak a year ago was nothing compared to what he was dealing with inside his body.
Cruz began experiencing abnormalities during training camp, leading up to the opening game against Towson, last August. He thought it was just a quick bug that would pass, nothing more and certainly not anything serious. However, as the season began, he noticed the symptoms increasing daily.
Following the Towson game, the Huskies had a bye week. When practice resumed in preparation for game two against Maryland, Cruz started noticing something in his chest.
“I didn’t know what it was,” he said following practice on Wednesday. “I started telling people that I needed to get my heart checked out, you know as a joke.”
Believing nothing was severely wrong, the 6-4, 296-pounder started that week against the Terrapins, Randy Edsall’s return to Rentschler Field.
“I remember being on the field and I couldn’t breathe properly,” Cruz expressed. “I knew I couldn’t have gotten out of shape during one bye week and the symptoms began to get stronger and stronger. At that point, I realized I might have been putting the team in jeopardy, so that’s when the coaches started rotating other guys in for me during games and giving me some offensive series off.”
Cruz kept battling through, thinking things would get better, but they never did. Following the fifth game against South Florida, he was on the practice field, when his life as a regular college student and football player, got put on hold.
“I couldn’t get through the warm up without questioning if I was going to make it. I went up to the trainers and let them know what was going on, that I couldn’t play through it. They had me in with a cardiologist the next day, where I received a number of tests. That’s when I got diagnosed; myocarditis.”
“It’s a viral infection that attacked my heart and made it weaker, so the pumping capacity wasn’t as good as a normal heart, which is why I was getting the shortness of breath. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen throughout my body because the blood wasn’t travelling as quickly.”
Cruz was left not knowing what the future held, especially as things initially got worse.
“The doctor’s didn’t know how severe it was, so I had to have a number of tests from there. I had palpitations in my chest and also developed a couple of blood clots, one in my leg and one in my lung. There were a few months where I was wondering if I was done with school, is the team going to want me back, am I going to get old? It was just a time when I was questioning a lot of things. At 20-something, who wants to be told their heart isn’t working properly?”
But things began to get better as he was put on medication. Slowly, life began to get back to normal. Football was potentially back in the picture as doctor’s allowed Gus to get back on a bike during the spring, closely monitoring him. He was then cleared to lift.
“It was great, those little things that you take for granted every day, were the things that got me. I felt that not only was there the possibility that I could play football again, but I could go on in life and do the things I was planning on doing.”
Then, he got clearance for football.
“It was reassurance that I was going to be ok,” Cruz excitedly stated. “This whole time, I was just waiting to get back out there with the guys. I just didn’t want football to be cut off in that way. I’ve always wanted my last game to be on the field with the guys that I came into this program with and now it will.”
This season is a fresh start for a lot of players with the new coaching staff in place, but especially so for Cruz.
“I’m serious, but I’m also enjoying the whole process like I’ve never done this before. I’m just excited. We are all looking to head out on a good note and give the fans of Connecticut something to really cheer about. We want to get this program back to the greatness that we were on the path of, when we first got here in 2010.”
Coach Diaco and his staff are certainly doing everything they can to get this team to buy in and it seems to be working.
“The culture that we have right now is a team of excitement,” Cruz gleamed. “The coaches are energetic and are always about your best interest. They all make you feel that they’re really here for you. All of that is exciting and when you go out there and play, you’re almost playing not to make a mistake, to not let them down. It’s a great feeling where you have that respect for a coach.”
His thoughts on Coach Diaco?
“He’s high energy at dinner,” he laughed, “everywhere he’s high energy. Every time he speaks he says something that’s going to touch you deep down.”
Cruz, who turns twenty-four in September, is just happy to still be a part of it.
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