Summer months are a little quieter for EJ Brucal.
Instead of wearing three hats – or five, if you count his roles as husband and father – he wears just two.
During these “slower” months, Brucal balances life as the Director of Rehab Services and as a weekend chaplain at Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center.
The break is short, though. When Belfry High School’s football players take the field for a new season, Brucal is right there, serving as the team’s volunteer physical therapist.
Though it’s a game he enjoys, he admits it isn’t one he fully understands.
“I’m from the Philippines and when we say ‘football’ there, we mean soccer,” he said with a laugh.
He has been a member of the ARH family since 2003, when he was recruited to work as a physical therapist at McDowell ARH Hospital.
That’s when he first ventured into the world of “American football,” volunteering in the same capacity at the former South Floyd High School.
He left McDowell in 2008 to take the director position at Tug Valley and began volunteering for Belfry two years later.
“I love it,” he said. “I love watching the game and watching the strategy of it. More importantly, I love helping keep the players healthy and on the field.”
Though the goal is to help injured players return to the field the same day, he said he sometimes sees players away from the field as well.
“I’ll see them at a game on Saturday and then I’ll see them in the clinic Monday as a patient,” he said. “And then when they come in for therapy, because I know how the injury happened and what their position is, it helps with their recovery plan.”
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Brucal takes care to ensure all patients receive the best treatment possible.
Sometimes, he said, that treatment is spiritual.
“They call me when there is a need,” he said of his work as a hospital chaplain. “When someone is sick or when someone’s family is sick, they often become vulnerable and anxious. They worry about what will happen to them and to their family, so I listen and I pray with them.”
Brucal, who serves as a deacon at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Williamson, W.Va., said he believes his role as a chaplain is just as important as his role as a medical professional.
“The healing process isn’t just about recovering from an injury or healing from a sickness,” he said. “It’s mental and spiritual as well as physical. I believe it can help a person become healthier.
“It’s very powerful to have someone praying with you and for you,” he continued. “And so, I talk with them and share with them the word of God.”
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Brucal and his wife Grace, who also works as a physical therapist at Tug Valley ARH, reside in Williamson with their son Ethan and daughter Kaitlyn. Their oldest daughter, Kristine, is attending medical school at the University of Louisville.
Life in Williamson, whose latest population was 2,931, is a bit slower than the one Brucal left behind in Manila with its metro population of 14.4 million.
“I went from city mouse to a country mouse, but I love it,” he said. “It’s peaceful and it’s quiet and the people are wonderful.”
He said he feels the same way about ARH, too.
“It’s a great place to work,” he said, adding he’s helped recruit more than 20 people from the Philippines in the 22 years since he started. “I’m blessed to work with great people. That’s important.
“It’s like one big family.”
