February 25, 2025 • 13 mins
Mike Berg- former Grand Forks Central Football Coach, and current color analyst for the Fighting Hawks Radio Network has his weekly visit.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll tell you what. With State hockey arriving here in
Grand Forks this weekend and state wrestling concluding this past
weekend down in Fargo, it is a perfect song for
this time of year. Be true to your school and
coach Berg, who celebrates the high school student athlete and
(00:20):
always has It is the most wonderful time of the
year that student athletes get to try to thrive in
the state tournament's.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Coach more tournaments than you can shake a stick out.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, that's great, Good morning to you. And you
were just telling me off air that you were enjoying
the beautiful day that we had yesterday and enjoying this
weather and still noticing in the shaded areas that there's
still the freeze refreez so you have to still be
careful in some spots. But yeah, we're enjoying it. And
(00:53):
you sometimes state tournaments bring with it good weather. Sometimes
it brings with a blizzard. Looks like we're getting the
good weather state tournaments this year.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It always seemed like the Class A State basketball tournament,
there had to be a blizzard in there.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Somewhere, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But we're not there yet, So we just concluded wrestling
and hockey fires up tomorrow and then we'll have the
regional basketball tournaments coming. And it's a lot going on
in Minnesota. So if you are a supporter or a fan,
or a parent or a high school athlete, this is
the time of year. This is exciting, and there's news
(01:32):
every day about something going on with a tournament somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, and gre Forks had two girls wrestlers, one a
state champion, one a state runner up at the state
wrestling tournament. And you've always had a great appreciation for
the wrestlers, boy or girl. But yeah, that's always nice
to bring some hardware back home to Grand Forks and
the wrestling discipline.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, the girls wrestling programs across the state have just
grown tremendously and maybe caught some people by surprise. I
think people in the wrestling community weren't totally shocked, but
I think those of us that haven't been deeply involved
with wrestling on a day to day basis maybe are
(02:17):
really there were that many girls interested in wrestling? Why not?
And University of Jamestown has had it for a number
of years now. Wow, And I see Bismarck State is
going any I ain't going to have a women's wrestling program,
and so it's grown, and why not. It's it's a
great sport. And I can remember back in the day
(02:39):
there'd be the occasional girl who would want to wrestle
and you'd have to go out there and wrestle with
the guys, and it was, you know, just a little
bit of an awkward deal. But no, it's a growing
sport across the nation, and you know it's why not, well,
great sport and.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Grand Forks has done quite well in recent years here
and the girls discipline of it, and that's great to
see continued success by certain individuals and as a team
on the girls side. And we'll have girls hockey with
a high seed for girls hockey tomorrow at Ralph Englestead Arena,
and we'll have the boys cranking up on Thursday with
(03:18):
Central and Red River with high seeds going to the
state tournament and lo and behold a state tournament in
Grand Forks. That feels somewhat right in our world, I would.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Say, as it should be. The state hockey tournament's home
is Grand Forks. And I know that you occasionally have
conflicts if you have to move it for a conflict Okay,
kind of understood. If you want to move it for
some reason to give somebody else a shot at it,
(03:48):
not so good. This is where it belongs in my mind.
And you know, they seem to have decided that football
belongs in Fargo. Our state football playoffs are down there.
It seems to be somebody wants it there permanently. I
would say, counter with, it can still return to Grand Forks.
We have a beautiful facility and certainly could host state
(04:10):
championship games again. But you know that's down the line.
But right now, hockey's back. Let's enjoy it. And it's
gone to four days.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, gone to four days. And you're right about football
where I always argue the Alert Center's got better concourses
than the Fargo Dome. But yeah, they've seemed to have said,
and here's the thing, I'll make a compromise with those
in the state High School Activities Association and athletic directors
around the state and those that kind of decide on
these things. You know, I've made my piece. I used
(04:40):
to love the state track meet in Grand Forks in
my time. It was a great place to be. The
track was good, Memorial Stadium set up good for it.
It was a great thing to have in the spring.
But you know what, Bismarck has proven the state track
meet belongs at the Community Bowl there or whatever the
current name of it is. It's been a fantastic boon
for the athletes and for the community, and it's been
(05:03):
awesome there. But if you can have the state track
meet every year in Bismarck, then bye goodness. We should
be able to have the state or state hockey tournament
in Grand Forks at the realm.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Seems to me that makes sense. You're not You're not
going to get any argument from me, and I agree
with State track that truly is a state wide event.
You can have a school of forty kids out there
and you're still going to have an athlete or two
that qualifies for the state track meet. And I always
always when we had the state track meet here was
a great event. But I always thought of you know,
(05:36):
Bowman had some really good teams. Gee, you finish the
track meet at six o'clock on a Saturday, and now
you get to get on a bus and drive back
to Bowman. That was kind of punishment for winning a
state championship. So you know, they had they had a
great coach and great team for a number of years.
But so where it's located in the facility, and I'm
(05:57):
granted that's where it belongs. Yeah, if you're going to
give you things up that way, we know which one
belongs here, primarily, no argument.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
No, I agree. And now here's a couple of other
things that I had on my list. Number one, I've
already seen very little Spring baseball so far, but I
have seen the old hat tap by the pitcher. We
got to look at that pitch now.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh no, I haven't watched any spring training. The closest
I've come. As I read on MLB or ESPN. I
will read the highlights and see what's going on with
the teams and the rosters and so forth. But it's
still too early and I'm not watching any games.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah. Well, the fact that they got to review a pitch,
I don't like going down that road. I'm you know,
I'm in my camp. I will take the misses, and
I will you know, be you know, befuddled by a
call or two every now and then. But the disruption
of stoppages, I've grown weary of it due to replay review.
(07:01):
And now if we we do pitches even a couple
of times a game. That's too much for me. But
uh okay, now one other thing. Now we're not all
that far away for finally getting spring football ramped up
and going. It's it's not it's it when once we
turn the calendar page, we you know, and come out
of spring break and those things. North got to football
(07:23):
this year. You know. For as much as I kind
of say that spring football isn't for me, it's not
something that I really gravitate towards, never have. There's two
things I want you to touch. A number one on
the North Dakota side specifically, this is a huge spring
for coach Schmidt to get a lot of things implemented
and getting his ideas across I mean, I mean he
(07:45):
he's worked with coach Schwigert in the past, he grew
up with coach Swygert on the staff, and and well
he was a player. But he's got his own ideas
in his own own things. And and that's going to
be an interesting spring for the guys that stayed on
this roster too, to learn what it's going to be
under coach Schmitt. I think that's going to be of
interest for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well part of it, too, I think is yet the
roster and new kids, new faces in their kids that
were you planned to be red shirted last year, they
are now going to try to find their way onto
the field. But a new staff, I think of the
across the entire staff, three coaches are there from seasons past,
(08:28):
and so I think this staff is going to learn
to have to learn to work together as well and
how all that comes together. And of course that's the
head coach's job is to coordinate that and get everybody
on the same page. So that will be interesting to me.
I will pay particular attention to the coaches working with
their groups. And then again I even mentioned this to
(08:51):
coach Schmitt the other day, is I can't wait till
you get out here and put jerseys on with numbers
on them, so I know who these guys are. There's
so many new faces out there, and so that's kind
of the way I learned who they are, because you know,
I'm out there just about every day, but there weren't helmets.
Well sure, yeah, you know I need those numbers on them.
(09:13):
I mean we even get on a plane sometimes and
they walk down the aisle and say, the heck is
that guy? Well, I've watched everything he's done for weeks.
I haven't seen his face yet because he's still in
a helmet. So yeah, I think lots of changes and
it's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Other schools around the country. Nebraska being one of the
biggest ones because they've been so big with their spring game,
I mean, sold out Memorial stadiums with their spring games.
They've said no. Ucla, I think has said no to
a spring game. There's a few other big ones that
have also stepped in here recently said you know what,
we're doing away with it. We we've decided now in
(09:52):
today's name image likeness portal era, that we're not going
to give the opportunity spring games might be going by
the way of the Dodo here before. It's yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
For some of the schools, it's been a big financial boost. Well,
I think they found they can make up that money
other ways. So it's not just that it's the fear
of losing your players. If they play well, somebody going
to come along. And I think it's also just the
fear of injury. I think right now there's so much
invested in these top athletes it's like a professional athlete.
(10:27):
We're paying this kid a million bucks. We can't get
him hurt in the spring. So, you know, it's just
like those that choose not to play in bowl games,
which makes me absolutely crazy. You're on a team, you
help a team qualify for a ball, and then you
opt out of playing in the bowl game. I don't
(10:47):
like that. So a lot of the changes in college football,
particularly the FBS level, don't sit real well with me.
But that's okay. If spring football games are set side,
I think you can still get something out of practice.
You can still evaluate your players and figure who's going
to be there. And I understand that thinking too, So, yeah,
(11:11):
there'll be something. There'll be something for us to watch. Yeah,
you know, there'll be something for fans to get out
and see what's going on. So it's not like the
door is closed and we can't those of us that
want to get a look, or we're not going to
be closed out.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And then finally the NFL is considering because I think
the Packers proposed it was that they they would like
to see the tush push play aiding the runner essentially
done away with. I never understood how we got to
it again.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Basically, I don't like it. I think teams that have
been successful with it like it, and I think orthopedic
surgeons like it. I can't think of many others who do.
But it gives the orthopedic surgeons some business, sure, because
they're working on necks and shoulders. And I don't even
(12:07):
think the fans like it. It's boring, it's it's effective. Okay,
but what did we see? Who did we see gets
shut out several times in the playoffs this year that
you know, looked like automatic and it turned out not
to be.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
The Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, okay, yeah, the Bills. Yeah, so I'm not a fan.
I don't mind quarterback sneak, but that's a whole different
that's a whole different ball game.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But aided is the big thing, and I I was
surprised that we ever got to that point. But yeah,
now we might remembering a.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Bad we have to call that. Hey, it's got to
be called back. The guys getting pushed in the back, Yep,
I throw the flag on that, and it was. But no, now,
so it's had its day, like everything else, So rules changed.
Some of the good old timers that looked at a
baseball game now, like you just mentioned earlier, wouldn't recognize
what's going on. And the same with football. I mean,
(13:01):
if you hadn't seen a football game, if you've been
gone for a few years, and you just watched the
start and saw them lined up for that kickoff, you
would say, what the heck is that? Yeah, you know,
so things happen.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, coach. We appreciate our conversation yet again today
we look forward to well you and I, I know
we enjoyed this time of year with all the high
school activities and student athletes at the high school level
having their one shining moments whatever sport they're playing. It's
a lot of fun to follow, and you and I
will do that for sure. We'll talk to you next Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Sounds good, Paul. Thank you,
I'll tell you what. With State hockey arriving here in
Grand Forks this weekend and state wrestling concluding this past
weekend down in Fargo, it is a perfect song for
this time of year. Be true to your school and
coach Berg, who celebrates the high school student athlete and
(00:20):
always has It is the most wonderful time of the
year that student athletes get to try to thrive in
the state tournament's.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Coach more tournaments than you can shake a stick out.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, that's great, Good morning to you. And you
were just telling me off air that you were enjoying
the beautiful day that we had yesterday and enjoying this
weather and still noticing in the shaded areas that there's
still the freeze refreez so you have to still be
careful in some spots. But yeah, we're enjoying it. And
(00:53):
you sometimes state tournaments bring with it good weather. Sometimes
it brings with a blizzard. Looks like we're getting the
good weather state tournaments this year.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It always seemed like the Class A State basketball tournament,
there had to be a blizzard in there.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Somewhere, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But we're not there yet, So we just concluded wrestling
and hockey fires up tomorrow and then we'll have the
regional basketball tournaments coming. And it's a lot going on
in Minnesota. So if you are a supporter or a fan,
or a parent or a high school athlete, this is
the time of year. This is exciting, and there's news
(01:32):
every day about something going on with a tournament somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, and gre Forks had two girls wrestlers, one a
state champion, one a state runner up at the state
wrestling tournament. And you've always had a great appreciation for
the wrestlers, boy or girl. But yeah, that's always nice
to bring some hardware back home to Grand Forks and
the wrestling discipline.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, the girls wrestling programs across the state have just
grown tremendously and maybe caught some people by surprise. I
think people in the wrestling community weren't totally shocked, but
I think those of us that haven't been deeply involved
with wrestling on a day to day basis maybe are
(02:17):
really there were that many girls interested in wrestling? Why not?
And University of Jamestown has had it for a number
of years now. Wow, And I see Bismarck State is
going any I ain't going to have a women's wrestling program,
and so it's grown, and why not. It's it's a
great sport. And I can remember back in the day
(02:39):
there'd be the occasional girl who would want to wrestle
and you'd have to go out there and wrestle with
the guys, and it was, you know, just a little
bit of an awkward deal. But no, it's a growing
sport across the nation, and you know it's why not, well,
great sport and.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Grand Forks has done quite well in recent years here
and the girls discipline of it, and that's great to
see continued success by certain individuals and as a team
on the girls side. And we'll have girls hockey with
a high seed for girls hockey tomorrow at Ralph Englestead Arena,
and we'll have the boys cranking up on Thursday with
(03:18):
Central and Red River with high seeds going to the
state tournament and lo and behold a state tournament in
Grand Forks. That feels somewhat right in our world, I would.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Say, as it should be. The state hockey tournament's home
is Grand Forks. And I know that you occasionally have
conflicts if you have to move it for a conflict Okay,
kind of understood. If you want to move it for
some reason to give somebody else a shot at it,
(03:48):
not so good. This is where it belongs in my mind.
And you know, they seem to have decided that football
belongs in Fargo. Our state football playoffs are down there.
It seems to be somebody wants it there permanently. I
would say, counter with, it can still return to Grand Forks.
We have a beautiful facility and certainly could host state
(04:10):
championship games again. But you know that's down the line.
But right now, hockey's back. Let's enjoy it. And it's
gone to four days.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, gone to four days. And you're right about football
where I always argue the Alert Center's got better concourses
than the Fargo Dome. But yeah, they've seemed to have said,
and here's the thing, I'll make a compromise with those
in the state High School Activities Association and athletic directors
around the state and those that kind of decide on
these things. You know, I've made my piece. I used
(04:40):
to love the state track meet in Grand Forks in
my time. It was a great place to be. The
track was good, Memorial Stadium set up good for it.
It was a great thing to have in the spring.
But you know what, Bismarck has proven the state track
meet belongs at the Community Bowl there or whatever the
current name of it is. It's been a fantastic boon
for the athletes and for the community, and it's been
(05:03):
awesome there. But if you can have the state track
meet every year in Bismarck, then bye goodness. We should
be able to have the state or state hockey tournament
in Grand Forks at the realm.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Seems to me that makes sense. You're not You're not
going to get any argument from me, and I agree
with State track that truly is a state wide event.
You can have a school of forty kids out there
and you're still going to have an athlete or two
that qualifies for the state track meet. And I always
always when we had the state track meet here was
a great event. But I always thought of you know,
(05:36):
Bowman had some really good teams. Gee, you finish the
track meet at six o'clock on a Saturday, and now
you get to get on a bus and drive back
to Bowman. That was kind of punishment for winning a
state championship. So you know, they had they had a
great coach and great team for a number of years.
But so where it's located in the facility, and I'm
(05:57):
granted that's where it belongs. Yeah, if you're going to
give you things up that way, we know which one
belongs here, primarily, no argument.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
No, I agree. And now here's a couple of other
things that I had on my list. Number one, I've
already seen very little Spring baseball so far, but I
have seen the old hat tap by the pitcher. We
got to look at that pitch now.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Oh no, I haven't watched any spring training. The closest
I've come. As I read on MLB or ESPN. I
will read the highlights and see what's going on with
the teams and the rosters and so forth. But it's
still too early and I'm not watching any games.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah. Well, the fact that they got to review a pitch,
I don't like going down that road. I'm you know,
I'm in my camp. I will take the misses, and
I will you know, be you know, befuddled by a
call or two every now and then. But the disruption
of stoppages, I've grown weary of it due to replay review.
(07:01):
And now if we we do pitches even a couple
of times a game. That's too much for me. But
uh okay, now one other thing. Now we're not all
that far away for finally getting spring football ramped up
and going. It's it's not it's it when once we
turn the calendar page, we you know, and come out
of spring break and those things. North got to football
(07:23):
this year. You know. For as much as I kind
of say that spring football isn't for me, it's not
something that I really gravitate towards, never have. There's two
things I want you to touch. A number one on
the North Dakota side specifically, this is a huge spring
for coach Schmidt to get a lot of things implemented
and getting his ideas across I mean, I mean he
(07:45):
he's worked with coach Schwigert in the past, he grew
up with coach Swygert on the staff, and and well
he was a player. But he's got his own ideas
in his own own things. And and that's going to
be an interesting spring for the guys that stayed on
this roster too, to learn what it's going to be
under coach Schmitt. I think that's going to be of
interest for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well part of it, too, I think is yet the
roster and new kids, new faces in their kids that
were you planned to be red shirted last year, they
are now going to try to find their way onto
the field. But a new staff, I think of the
across the entire staff, three coaches are there from seasons past,
(08:28):
and so I think this staff is going to learn
to have to learn to work together as well and
how all that comes together. And of course that's the
head coach's job is to coordinate that and get everybody
on the same page. So that will be interesting to me.
I will pay particular attention to the coaches working with
their groups. And then again I even mentioned this to
(08:51):
coach Schmitt the other day, is I can't wait till
you get out here and put jerseys on with numbers
on them, so I know who these guys are. There's
so many new faces out there, and so that's kind
of the way I learned who they are, because you know,
I'm out there just about every day, but there weren't helmets.
Well sure, yeah, you know I need those numbers on them.
(09:13):
I mean we even get on a plane sometimes and
they walk down the aisle and say, the heck is
that guy? Well, I've watched everything he's done for weeks.
I haven't seen his face yet because he's still in
a helmet. So yeah, I think lots of changes and
it's an exciting time.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Other schools around the country. Nebraska being one of the
biggest ones because they've been so big with their spring game,
I mean, sold out Memorial stadiums with their spring games.
They've said no. Ucla, I think has said no to
a spring game. There's a few other big ones that
have also stepped in here recently said you know what,
we're doing away with it. We we've decided now in
(09:52):
today's name image likeness portal era, that we're not going
to give the opportunity spring games might be going by
the way of the Dodo here before. It's yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
For some of the schools, it's been a big financial boost. Well,
I think they found they can make up that money
other ways. So it's not just that it's the fear
of losing your players. If they play well, somebody going
to come along. And I think it's also just the
fear of injury. I think right now there's so much
invested in these top athletes it's like a professional athlete.
(10:27):
We're paying this kid a million bucks. We can't get
him hurt in the spring. So, you know, it's just
like those that choose not to play in bowl games,
which makes me absolutely crazy. You're on a team, you
help a team qualify for a ball, and then you
opt out of playing in the bowl game. I don't
(10:47):
like that. So a lot of the changes in college football,
particularly the FBS level, don't sit real well with me.
But that's okay. If spring football games are set side,
I think you can still get something out of practice.
You can still evaluate your players and figure who's going
to be there. And I understand that thinking too, So, yeah,
(11:11):
there'll be something. There'll be something for us to watch. Yeah,
you know, there'll be something for fans to get out
and see what's going on. So it's not like the
door is closed and we can't those of us that
want to get a look, or we're not going to
be closed out.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And then finally the NFL is considering because I think
the Packers proposed it was that they they would like
to see the tush push play aiding the runner essentially
done away with. I never understood how we got to
it again.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Basically, I don't like it. I think teams that have
been successful with it like it, and I think orthopedic
surgeons like it. I can't think of many others who do.
But it gives the orthopedic surgeons some business, sure, because
they're working on necks and shoulders. And I don't even
(12:07):
think the fans like it. It's boring, it's it's effective. Okay,
but what did we see? Who did we see gets
shut out several times in the playoffs this year that
you know, looked like automatic and it turned out not
to be.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
The Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, okay, yeah, the Bills. Yeah, so I'm not a fan.
I don't mind quarterback sneak, but that's a whole different
that's a whole different ball game.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But aided is the big thing, and I I was
surprised that we ever got to that point. But yeah,
now we might remembering a.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Bad we have to call that. Hey, it's got to
be called back. The guys getting pushed in the back, Yep,
I throw the flag on that, and it was. But no, now,
so it's had its day, like everything else, So rules changed.
Some of the good old timers that looked at a
baseball game now, like you just mentioned earlier, wouldn't recognize
what's going on. And the same with football. I mean,
(13:01):
if you hadn't seen a football game, if you've been
gone for a few years, and you just watched the
start and saw them lined up for that kickoff, you
would say, what the heck is that? Yeah, you know,
so things happen.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, coach. We appreciate our conversation yet again today
we look forward to well you and I, I know
we enjoyed this time of year with all the high
school activities and student athletes at the high school level
having their one shining moments whatever sport they're playing. It's
a lot of fun to follow, and you and I
will do that for sure. We'll talk to you next Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Sounds good, Paul. Thank you,
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