In Don Berger’s 39 years as a head cross country and track and field coach – first at Salem Academy and the past 17 years at North Salem – he has had 59 individuals or relays win state championships.
But he’s just as enthusiastic about it when an athlete goes from novice to a district champion in two years like then-senior David Johnson did at North Salem with the javelin last season.
That Berger puts the same effort into getting a JV 100 meter dash runner to improve as he does with a state champion is only part of what’s made him a great coach.
Berger has been selected as the 2016 National Coach of the Year for girls track and field by the National Federation of State High School Associations Coaches Association.
Don Berger has been named the girl’s track and field Coach of the Year by the National Federation of High School Coaches Association. Photographed at North Salem High School on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017.
“It’s certainly a surprise, but it’s a team honor with these great kids and this staff,” Berger said. “You can’t do something like this on your own. You got to have the right people there. And right now I got an amazing group.
“And then my wife, Georgiann, is so supportive. She is always doing team get-togethers and buying gifts for the team and arranging for trips and awards nights and she’s just amazing.”
Berger’s first coaching position was as the middle school head coach at Salem Academy in 1978 while he was a senior in college.
He describes that first job as not a good fit with his intensity as coach, but in the fall of 1978 he was hired as a teacher and head track and field and cross country coach for Salem Academy’s high school programs.
Salem Academy wasn’t exactly a powerhouse, and he had to build the program from the ground up.
“What coach Berger brought instantly, that was a passion for the sport,” said Cascade coach Dan Petersen, in his 21st year as a head coach.
“Night after night we’d stay late a couple of us and coach Berger, and we’d have our own mini decathlons, then we’d go out to eat at A&W, which was right in front of our campus. None of us, including coach Berger could afford much so we’d get some fries and ranch, and we would hang out and talk track and life.”
In his 22 years at Salem Academy, Berger coached its teams to nine state championships: The 1986 girls cross country team; the boys track and field teams in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995; and the girls track and field teams in 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1995.
Berger also coached both of his daughters at Salem Academy: Stephanie was a state medalist on the 1995 state championship winning team and Tiffanie was later a team captain.
At one point, his girls track and field teams didn’t lose a dual meet in a nine-year span.
He came to North Salem as a teacher and head coach in 2000.
“I got a chance to move up,” Berger said. “The athletic director (Lynn Freshour) from North lived on my block and he started bringing kids over and having success. He got me the job at North, and it’s been a really good move. I’ve really enjoyed the 6A program.”
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When he first came to North Salem and tried to start an off-season track and field program, he got one athlete to come out.
Now he has 40 or more athletes, and a bunch of coaches, out three days a week during the most miserable of winter afternoons.
“He’s a big impact on us because to him it’s a lot more than just running circles out on the track,” said sophomore Rebekah Miller, the state champion in the 200 meter dash as a freshman. “He gets us on a personal level. If we have issues, he’s always there.
“Also, he encourages us to push our limits, you know. And so there’s always that mental block that most kids have when it comes to athletics. He really helps with that.”
At North Salem he’s had different challenges than he had at Salem Academy.
He spends time talking with PE teachers to learn about what potential they see in the youths to try to identify athletes.
And with his staff and athletes, he puts on clinics for middle school students at Parrish and Houck and puts on middle school meets.
“He’s truly in it to help kids, to the point where he’s taken kids in and they’ve lived with him and helped get them back on their feet,” said assistant coach Michael Herrmann, who ran for Berger at North Salem.
“And for me, he took me from a place that was difficult at home to giving me the footing that I needed to go on and go to college and be a teacher and continue in athletics and then get back into coaching. The things that he’s given to me personally and the students who come from a place like I did at North Salem is invaluable, I think.”
It’s a testament to Berger’s influence that so many of his former athletes come back to be assistant coaches under him.
He currently has 22 assistant coaches, and treats them like family.
It’s not unusual for him to have all of them over to his house for dinners.
“Last year I think he bought 22 jackets out of his own personal money,” assistant coach Troy Walker said. “This is somebody that understands that giving back, even though it’s a jacket or hat or a bag or something.
“It’s one of those things that his passion falls over into the coaches as well. His model has been successful.”
Don Berger has been named the girl’s track and field Coach of the Year by the National Federation of High School Coaches Association. Photographed with two of his athletes, sophomore Rebekah Miller, center, and freshman Maliyah Thompson, at North Salem High School on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017.
Every spring – in the middle of their season – North Salem’s track and field teams do campus beautification events, planting flowers and working the grounds at their school.
“More importantly it’s about what he teaches kids about their being a part of something bigger than themselves,” said assistant coach Steve Chambers. “We have a component of community service.
“We have the most volunteers at the Awesome 3000 of any school involved. The idea of there are people out there who are paying for your education, you have an obligation to give back to your school, to your community.”
When North Salem’s girls track and field team won the 2012 league championship, it was the first league championship in a girls sport the school had won.
But Berger also has coached 21 teams that have won district championship. He has been the league coach of the year five times at North Salem and was more times at Salem Academy than he can keep track.
In his 39th year of coaching track and field and has accomplished pretty much everything there is to as a head coach.
Though he has turned over the head coaching position of the cross country team at North Salem to Herrmann, he’s not even close to being done with coaching.
“The greatest success in coaching comes from loving up kids,” Berger said. “There’s an old cliché, kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Absolutely true.”
Reach Bill Poehler at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com and follow him on Twitter @bpoehler