Coachspeak: North Harford girls soccer's Tom Berg
Tom Berg's wife jokes about how he can forget where he left his car keys, but he can recall every last detail of any given soccer game he has coached over his years at North Harford High.
There have been many. After spending 12 years coaching the boys team, Berg is in his 27th season as the girls varsity coach. The 39 years have produced plenty of wins, as he went 69-36-13 guiding the boys and will take a 253-112-51 mark into this year's playoffs on the girls' side after the Hawks posted a 7-6-1 mark this season.
Berg, who plans to coach another year or two, taught social studies and language arts for 39 years at North Harford's middle and high schools before retiring two years ago. As our latest Coachspeak guest, we asked Berg five questions about the evolution of girls soccer, his coaching philosophies and memories, and his thoughts on how concussions should be dealt with in the game.
How has the girls game changed over the years?
The game is much faster and the skill level is much higher than when I first started. I think that's because there's so many different learning opportunities. Now, we have camps and clinics; the coaches now have a lot more experience than the ones years ago; and the girls now make much more of a commitment. The fact that so many colleges are playing the game now gives scholarship opportunities that girls want to take advantage of. I just think the fact that there are so many leagues, so many club teams, so many opportunities -- some of the kids take advantage of them and some of them don't, of course. But the skill level is so much higher and the game has gotten so much faster. There's also television exposure -- kids now see more games, they don't just play in them and that has a big impact for both players and coaches.
What is the most important message you have tried to instill in your players?
I think the fact that soccer is a cooperative sport and not just a competitive sport. To really be successful, you have to be able to cooperate with your coach, your teammates and everybody you work with and then the competition becomes much more easy to take care of. I also try to emphasize to the girls that the game is about relationships. Years from now, they won't remember their won-loss record, but they are going to remember how they were treated and how they treated others. And then, of course, I try to emphasize sportsmanship with the fact that every player on the field is somebody's daughter.
Is there any one particular game or goal that stands out the most for you in all your years coaching?
When I was coaching in the boys program years ago before we had a girls program -- back in about 1983 -- I had a young lady, the first and only girl in our county that was playing soccer at the time. We were playing at Havre de Grace, and I had cut about 15 or 20 young men who had tried out for the team and I caught a lot of grief for it from parents. She scored the winning goal in that game and ended up being a great player. She went on to college and played there and came back and coached in our program. Her name is Michelle Jakubiak. That goal she scored was really huge and will always stand out in my mind.
What phrase have you most used in pregame or halftime speeches?
There's one I borrowed from Marv Levy, who was the football coach for the Buffalo Bills for so long. He used to say to his players before a game: "Where would you rather be than here, what would you rather be doing than this?" On occasion, before games that are quote-unquote big games I would say that and the kids are in almost universal agreement that this is a great opportunity and they wouldn't want to be anywhere but here and they wouldn't want to be doing anything but this. I always tell them "How many times in your life can you really say that?"
Concussions are a hot topic in sports today, what precautions do you feel are needed in high school soccer?
We just started something at Harford County now that is wonderful and that's having a trainer at all of our games. Having a trainer on the field is so important, and I think every school should have a full-time trainer. We don't have that yet in Harford County, but we're getting closer every year. That's the first step. I think the second step is to not ignore the concussion studies of soccer. We like to bury our head in the sand and say "Well, we've been playing soccer for hundreds of years and haven't had to deal with it." I think we just ignored it. The studies are showing that concussions are a big concern in soccer, not just heading the ball, but head-to-head and head-to-ground concussions. We had four concussions last year on our varsity team and two of them were serious enough where the girls missed most of the season. I think if the girls wear protective head gear we may alleviate some of the problems. Our team has head gear that girls have the option of wearing. Every player has a headband that we purchased and gave to them. Some of the girls choose to use them and some don't. We can't mandate it, but we strongly encourage it. I think that's the coming thing, we'll see some kind of head gear in the future. It's not because it's just the right thing to do, but also because of the liability issues.
