In Bridgeport sports, any level of sports, the cliché on teamwork, or being part of a team, some believe is overused. But in Bridgeport, those involved in the sports program’s long and proud tradition are hopeful the cliché’ will continue to be used over and over again.

 

Buying into team, believing in teamwork, playing your roles as a member of a team is a big reason those trophy cases in the main hallway in Bridgeport High School no longer have room for hardware. Buying into those same concepts, however, do not just fill framed pieces of wood and glass with molded sculptures of accomplishments.

 

Coaches know the importance of team helping build something even more important than championship sports programs. They build championship people. They build championship families.

 

It would be hard to argue that 1989 Bridgeport High School graduate Anthony R. Maholic, III is not Exhibit A for the philosophy of team. I mention this, as many of you know, as the result of Anthony’s passing March 8 at the entirely too early age of 53.

 

Maholic played a large part in some of those trophies crammed into the cases in the Bridgeport High School cafeteria. He was a contributor on the 1986 Class AA state championship football team and then a key cog in the 1988 state title championship season.

 

There was more, though. Maholic also was a standout athlete on the Indians’ baseball teams back when Robert Shields was first cutting his coaching teeth. It is safe to say he is part of the initial fabric that has put together a championship quilt as big as any the state has seen in history.

 

Along the way, Maholic excelled at BHS with a type of power that has been, and continues to be, a hallmark of the best BHS athletic teams.

 

“Back in ninth grade, our football team was undefeated, and Anthony got the nickname Captain Crunch for the way he hit on defense and the way he blocked on offense,” said John Slavich a fellow 1989 classmate who was a lifelong friend and teammate of Maholic’s growing up in the city. “He was a linebacker and a fullback and if he hit you on either side of the ball, you felt it.”

 

It continued well into his varsity days when the Indians, as they continue to do, had an amazing run of football when football was one of the few raking in titles. Although Maholic and his friend Slavich saw primarily special teams action as sophomores, it would change.

 

“When that second state title came about, we were more involved,” said Slavich.

 

On the offensive side of the ball in football that meant being part of the stick-I. He would be with Chris Marteney in the front, often leading the way for Jeff Romeo, Slavich said, and plowing a path that made things easier for Romeo, Marteney, and Bubby Swiger.

 

“He had a lineman’s body at 220 pounds and was as fast as anyone on the team,” said Slavich. “He put his head down and went after you.

 

“I was a lineman, and even when we would block like crap, if Anthony got the ball and found an opening you would look up and see five or six guys trying to bring him down,” he continued with a chuckle recalling his friend’s on-field exploits. “If he got his legs pumping, it was a problem. He had no quit.”

 

Maholic, said Slavich, was a bruiser on defense. He said his friend was a regular visitor to the other team’s backfield.

 

“People remember football because of the state titles, but I’m fairly certain he was a better baseball player,” said Slavich. “He started all three years, which was hard to do.”

 

Slavich laughed at how things came easy for his friend. He said he showed up his junior year and on the first day of practice he is in the batter’s box batting left-handed.

 

“We asked him what he was doing, and he told us he practiced switch hitting. I kid you not, the first pitch he saw he hit a shot that cleared the 380-foot mark in right field,” Slavich said. “He became a switch hitter after that.”

 

Slavich said he told many of the stories as he delivered the eulogy at Anthony’s funeral Monday. He added there were stories from family, friends, classmates, and anyone who had the honor of knowing the person he called friend. He said there was one other thing.

 

“I mentioned him being a good teammate because I heard his wife using that term a lot during the visitation,” said Slavich. “The word team was a concept that was more than just a sports concept. He took it seriously because he considered his family a team. That’s not just wordplay because looking back, his first loyalty was to who he was closest to. That trait carried into his family. There was nothing more important than his team, his family.”

 

Slavich said looking back he should have known that was going to be the case. He said there was no better friend, no better “pot stirrer” than Maholic. The scenario changed if he got a girlfriend, and he would not be hanging around nearly as much.

 

“He was so loyal. He would never cheat the people he was loyal to who deserved his time and attention,” Slavich said. “As a friend, you knew you had his loyalty. Loyalty was big with Anthony, even when he was doing what he could to get under your skin because even if you were his target, he was also the first person to have your back. You could see the same loyalty with his family.”

 

Slavich said when Anthony met the former Amy Weiss and got married that he knew what was in store. And that was complete devotion.

 

“He was the most loyal family man there was. Amy was his best friend and that meant he and I would spend our time being in contact via text or Twitter. He was all in on his wife and his kids,” said Slavich. “I know I’ve said it a lot, but they were a team and priority one was that team.”

 

Amy grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. She did not meet Anthony until 1995 at a time when he moved back to near Pittsburgh with his grandmother, he said.

 

They ended up meeting at a business event at a bowling alley. She was set up to meet him but had to bring her sister with her.

 

“You just never know, so I brought my sister along,” said Amy.

 

As it turned out, the bowling alley proved to be a romantic strike. Leading to 29 years together. The couple’s 25^th anniversary is set for this Sept. 18

 

“We were a team. We were a team for our kids. We were so wrapped up in what one another was doing and what the kids were doing,” said Amy. “I referred to us as a team so many times over the last (14 days). The truth was that we were actually teammates in life, and life isn’t easy. Being on a team allowed us to manage the ups and downs.”

 

There were other teams, too, Anthony was involved with. It may not surprise those who knew him that he coached youth baseball.

 

“He loved to coach because he loved to mentor about the game and the knowledge behind the game. I enjoyed watching him because he was so passionate about it,” said Amy. “Everyone who played for him he referenced as his kids. He loved watching his ‘kids’ turn into special athletes and particularly young men.”

 

Those kids, along with Anthony and Amy Maholic’s children, Clay and Gillian, all were part of the same teamwork process. It was the same process Anthony’s parents – Anthony and Candace – utilized to a master’s level here in Bridgeport.

 

Maybe his parents did not refer to their own Tribe as a team. But that is what it was. They created the perfect teammate.

 

That teammate helped deliver titles to Bridgeport High School. It delivered friendship to countless individuals. The teammate provided love to family. And it created a perfect team in New Kensington, Pa.

 

Sadly, that teammate got called up sooner than those on all of his teams would have liked. Even that is okay. It is just an interruption, like a seventh inning stretch, until the team one day is back together again.

 

Rest in Peace Anthony. Your work here is done.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Anthony Maholic making a tackle in the mud during the pre-turf era of West Virginia football. He's shown second from left (with Reds hat on) with his football teammates in the second image, while warming up with the BHS baseball team in the third photo. He's shown in th top row middle (still wearing 36) still winning - this time as a youth league coach. In the bottom photo he is shown with his wife and two children. Photos courtesy of Amy Maholic and John Slavich.