Balancing act just part of a life of service for Streator firefighter/coach Bryan Park

Balancing a life as a father and husband, a full-time firefighter, a youth sports volunteer coach and board member and a varsity assistant coach for his hometown high school’s boys basketball team has created some scheduling conflicts for Streator Fire Department Lieutenant Bryan Park.

It’s a balancing act he’s been happy to perform – his way of life, in fact – and it’s not like he’s had to run off a sideline handing his clipboard to the team captain and yelling, “You’re on your own, kids!” on his way to an emergency.

Not yet, anyway.

“There have been some,” Park said of emergency conflicts, “but there hasn’t been nearly as many as you’d think. A lot of times, I’m either an assistant or someone’s there to help me out, and it’s always been during practice. I’ve never had it happen during a game, which is good ... and probably means now next year it’ll happen during a game, right?”

After his 1995 graduation from Streator High School, where he played basketball and baseball, Park got a degree in economics from Illinois State University. After college, he chose to join the Streator Fire Department in 2002. Seven years ago he was promoted to lieutenant, the second-in-command on his shift.

“It’s been the most enjoyable profession that I ever could have imagined,” he said. “Getting to help people every day is the best thing you could endeavor to do.”

That life-of-service mentality extends outside of his 24-hours-on, 48-hours-off shifts at the fire department.

He began coaching and serving on the board for Streator Youth Soccer 13 years ago when his daughter, Ella, started playing and has stuck with it as his son, Tyler, has elevated through the age divisions. Park served five years as league president before stepping into the secretary role when Erin Thorp took over.

“The big thing is, I can count on him,” said Thorp, who’s served alongside Park on the executive board for over a decade. “If I need somebody to vent to or someone to walk me through something, he’s always available. ...

“I can’t tell you how many times he’ll do a 24-hour shift, and on big soccer Saturdays – opening day or tournament days – he’ll get off at 7 and I’ll get a text: ‘I’m going home to clean up and I’ll be at the fields by 8:30.’ "

Park also is a volunteer youth baseball and basketball coach and vice president of the Streator Wolves youth travel basketball league he helped develop with, among others, Streator High School head boys basketball coach and close friend, Beau Doty.

He served as Doty’s right-hand man during the entirety of Doty’s winning 15-season tenure leading the Bulldogs.

“Beau asked me just after his first season started,” Park said of deciding to add high school coach to his busy schedule. “He was looking for help and had heard my name, and we had a discussion and found out that not only do we look alike, but we think alike too. I explained my schedule to him, ‘I’m not going to be able to make everything,’ that type of thing, and he understood.

“And he’s understood ever since.”

Doty said he couldn’t imagine coaching the Bulldogs program without him, even if Park does have to miss the occasional practice or game due to his firefighting responsibilities.

“Honestly, I don’t know that there’s any other way,” Doty said. “Bryan’s been here every step of the way for 15 years. I was introduced to him early on when I got to Streator, and I view it as our program that we run ever since I’ve been here.

“What he does in terms of the balancing act between changing shifts with fellow firefighters so he can be at as many games as possible, and then balancing that between the duties he has as a father and husband and how much he’s involved in youth soccer and as the vice president of our Streator Wolves (youth basketball program) ... for what he’s done for our program and the pillar he is in our community, I’m just very fortunate to have his guidance and his loyalty as a coach and a friend.”

A strong support system of friends and family, the willingness of his wife, Tiffany – a high school teacher and coach herself – to “become a single parent,” in Park’s words, every third day during his 24-hour shifts and the brotherhood of his fellow firefighters to switch shifts to make it all work are the main reasons Park believes he can maintain that balancing act of service.

“On days I’m not able to take off, I have so many people who are willing to help me out, switch shifts, coming in and working for me for four hours so I can make a game,” Park said. “And of course, I pay everybody back, but those people are taking time out of their lives and their families’ lives to be here for me, which I’ll never be able to repay fully.

“Without that help, I’d never be able to do it.”

It can create unavoidable, hard-to-navigate scheduling conflicts. Park believes, however, that the unique work schedule helps rather than hinders him from serving his community in other ways.

“It gives me the opportunity to fill my other days with those types of things, which is great,” he said. “Obviously family comes first, but the job comes second for me.

“If you become a firefighter full-time, it’s your lifestyle. Because of your schedule and everything, it’s impossible for it not to become a huge part of your life.”

He also believes his main career, his secondary one coaching high school basketball and his volunteer work in youth sports go hand-in-hand, each helping in the other areas of his life.

“I think it definitely goes both ways,” Park said. “Empathy and leadership are huge. The biggest thing as far as fire service to coaching goes is being able to interact with different people. There are so many different kinds of people we meet on calls. We deal with every different type of person, and every person is different.

“And coaching’s helped me here at the fire department. We’re starting to get a lot of younger people here, and I know how to talk with younger people when they start here, because that’s what I deal with on a daily basis in basketball.”