MASON CITY – The Mason City High School football team has a new coach.
Matt Berkley, currently a social studies teacher at John Adams Middle School and varsity football offensive line coach this past season, today accepted the position as Head Football Coach for the Mohawks this coming season.
Berkley, a graduate of Dubuque Senior High School in 1995 and receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in History and Education from Iowa State University, moved to Mason City in 2000 to begin his career as an educator in the Mason City Community School District. During his employment in Mason City, Berkley coached football as a freshman/sophomore assistant, head sophomore coach, varsity defensive coordinator under Coach John Lee and during the 2014 season as an offensive line coach for Interim Head Coach Dan Kamm.
Berkley pursued advanced degrees in Education earning a Master of Education from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota (2006) and a Specialist in Education with an emphasis on Leadership in Education from Drake University (2012). In addition to teaching and coaching, Berkley served a number of years as Middle School Athletics Director, assisting with scheduling and organization of middle school activities, and is currently a co- leader of the John Adams PBIS (Positive Behaviors Interventions System) program. Berkley is currently a member of the Youth Football Board in Mason City.
Berkley has called Mason City his home since August of 2000 and is married to Sara (Fryar) Berkley, a graduate of Mason City High School and employed at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa. They have three sons – Ryan 11 in 5th grade at Lincoln Intermediate, Brenden 9 in 3rd grade at Jefferson Elementary and Nathan 6 in kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary.
Berkley shares, “This is a place that I have come to love and take a tremendous amount of pride in being associated with. I consider myself a life-long Mohawk and feel like I grew up here. My family has made Mason City our home and we are excited to be a part of the future of Mohawk Football. I am very passionate about being a Mohawk and plan on bringing that with me to the field on a daily basis. I feel we have a core of underclassmen that will help us get the program turned around so we are competitive on yearly basis.
Our youth programs have players that are involved in a lot of different activities besides football and our middle school athletes are also involved in multiple sports. This is a great foundation to help our program develop over time. Currently our athletes have been putting in a lot of hard workouts during the offseason, laying the foundation for the future. Building a program takes time and I am willing to put in the time and effort to see this program return to that consistent competitiveness. To me, this is a chance to build something special at Mason City with a great bunch of kids in an excellent community.”
The District would like to thank Dan Kamm for stepping in as Interim Head Varsity Football Coach for the 2014 season due to the late resignation of Justin Penner. The District is excited that Coach Kamm will continue to support our student athletes as a member of the Mohawk football coaching staff and we look forward to the next football season. Th M0hawks open the 2015 season on August 28 against the Clear Lake Lions in Clear Lake!
8 thoughts on “Matt Berkley named Mason City High School football coach”
I wish him the best. Mason City needs a competitive football team again. We did it in the 70’s. Why not now?
Numbers are too low, dilution caused by other sports, plus a losing culture. Tough to turn around, but I hear there are better days coming due to some local coaches bringing some kids along.
I wish him well. With the declining size of Mason City, they will not be in 4A much longer.
In the 70’s they had Alvarez as a coach, he was great and moved on to the Hawkeye coaching staff and then lead Wisconsin to titles. Those are big shoes to emulate but I wish Mason City the best trying to defeat schools twice their size.
And falling behind Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, other towns that MC used to be bigger than. Our school enrollment is declining so fast, they will only need one campus for every kid to go to, one of these days. $60+ million dollar budget for what. To pay cops to come in and keep order. Most kids I ever talk to can’t wait to get out of the MC schools. Just a sad fact that everyone knows but the cheerleaders brush under the rug because the truth is painful.
Matt, if there were NO KIDS at MCHS, they would still have a 60+ million dollar budget. That’s all that matters
You got that right. They will spend, spend, spend.
@Matt-I have said this before, but, you just can not have the people that should be cut making the decision on who is getting cut. They will alway vote to keep their jobs and some cafeteria worker or grounds keeper who makes a quarter of the administrator will be the ones laid off. It never fails.
I do not know Mr. Berkley but I wish him luck. I would love to see Mason City be a contender again. He will have to overcome some bad attitudes and I would not expect to much to soon.