In the world of football, after a poor season, teams can often make significant changes. For the Berkley Bears, that meant getting new Coaches. Over this most recent offseason, the head coach of the varsity team, Casey Humes, made two new hires to the team.
As most students and staff know, the Berkley football program is historically unsuccessful. In its history, Berkley football has won 263 games and suffered 420 losses. The new head coach, Casey Humes, wants to change something about this, and he has taken this task upon himself. The addition to the team is the new head coach of the JV football team, Coach Edge. This season will be Coach Edge’s seventh year of Coaching. He also played football for six years and two years in college for Northwood University.
With this season being his first year coaching JV at Berkley, and he is trying to set a new tone for the team. Second-year JV football player Aiden Oudbier says, “Coach Edge has brought a new energy to the team. He cares about his players by making the practice the best he can with different drills to make us better.” What Coach Edge is doing right now by making sure that he prioritizes his players is a very important part of making a new culture for the team and helping them get better.
Another new coach, who works with the defensive linemen, is Coach Malachi. He played football for 10 years. He played at Belleville High School for two years and another two years at Walled Lake Western. After his high school career, he played two years of college football at Adrian College and Olivet University. For his first year of coaching, he coached at Dearborn High School and is now with the Berkley Bears. He is very well-liked around the team and brings lots of positive energy.
Max Giles, a second-year JV player, agrees with this, saying, “Coach Malachi is one of the best lineman coaches I have had. He takes his time to make sure that everyone is on point and focused. He also brings a type of energy to practice that is contagious and gets everyone going and fired up.” Going by what Max said when Coach Malachi brings a lot of energy during practice it gets the team going. This can improve practice because everyone gets very focused and gives it 100%.
After every practice, when it is his turn to talk, no matter what, he says, “energy, tenacity, and fight.” After hearing this phrase repeatedly, it has become a team tradition at the end of every practice. Looking into the future with the new Coaches this is very important. This season means alot because it will set the tone for their foreseeable future at Berkley.
