James Berkman is an American

college lacrosse College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse in Canada is ...

coach. He has served as the head coach at

Salisbury University Salisbury University is a public university in Salisbury, Maryland. Founded in 1925, Salisbury is a member of the University System of Maryland, with a fall 2016 enrollment of 8,748. Salisbury University offers 42 distinct undergraduate and 14 ...

since 1989, after spending one season as the head coach at

State University of New York at Potsdam The State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam or, colloquially, Potsdam) is a public college in Potsdam, New York. It is the northernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Founded in 1816, it is among the ...

(SUNY Potsdam) in 1985. Salisbury has won 12 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championships and 19

Capital Athletic Conference The Coast to Coast Athletic Conference (C2C; officially stylized as Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference), formerly named Capital Athletic Conference (CAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member i ...

(CAC) titles during his tenure with the Sea Gulls. He has been named the Division III coach of the year four times and the CAC Coach of the Year ten times. In 2008, Berkman surpassed

Jack Emmer John S. Emmer is a former American lacrosse coach. He retired in 2005 with 326 wins, making him the lacrosse coach with the most wins in NCAA history. This mark was surpassed in 2008 by Jim Berkman of Division III Salisbury University. Emmer is on ...

's former record of 326 wins to become the all-time winningest NCAA men's lacrosse coach.

Early life

Berkman grew up in Watertown, New York. He attended nearby St. Lawrence University, where he played basketball and lacrosse as a midfielder. He scored thirty goals to finish his college career as the third all-time scorer for the Saints. In basketball, he averaged 8.2 points per game and finished his career as the all-time leader in assists. As a senior in 1982, he was named a second-team lacrosse All-American and played in the North-South All-Star Game.Jim Berkman bio
Salisbury University, retrieved May 21, 2009. That year, he was named the

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

on both the lacrosse and basketball teams and the Outstanding Male Senior Athlete.

Coaching career

Early coaching positions

He then attended graduate school for two years at

, where he also served as an assistant lacrosse coach. In 1985, as the head coach at Potsdam State he led the lacrosse team to a school-record of nine wins. He then returned to his alma mater and, in addition to coaching lacrosse, he led the men's basketball team to the ICAC championship during the 1987–88 season. The following year, he returned to Salisbury.

Salisbury

Berkman took over as the Salisbury men's lacrosse head coach in 1989. Each season since, he has guided the team to the NCAA tournament, for a total of 33 consecutive appearances. He has compiled a 588-62 record. From the season they entered the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) in 1995 until the 2009 NCAA tournament quarterfinals, He led Salisbury to 105 consecutive conference wins and 24 conference championships. The Sea Gulls under Berkman have secured the Division III national championship in 1994, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, and 2023, and appeared in the final in 1991, 2000, 2006,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, 2014, 2018, and 2021.

Honors and records

The St. Lawrence Athletics Hall of Fame inducted Berkman in 2001. He was awarded the 1991 Francis "Babe" Kraus Award, the 2008 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division III Coach of the Year honors, and the FieldTurf Tarkett Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007. He was named the CAC Coach of the Year in 1991, 1996, 2002, 2003, and each year from 2005 to 2008. During the

2008 NCAA tournament The 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2007–08 basketball ...

, he surpassed Army coach Jack Emmer's former record of 326 wins to become the all-time winningest NCAA lacrosse coach. By the end of the 2009 season, he had expanded it to 337 wins. Under Berkman, Salisbury has also secured numerous records for winning streaks. The Sea Gulls compiled an NCAA record 105-game conference winning streak from the start of the 1995 season through the

2009 NCAA tournament The 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament in which 65 schools competed to determine the national champion of the men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2008–09 basketball ...

. They also compiled 69-, 55-, and 47-game consecutive winning streaks, an 87-game regular season winning streak, and an 80-game home winning streak.

Personal life

Berkman resides in Salisbury, Maryland with his wife, Jennifer, who is the Student Health Services director at Salisbury University. Their son, Kylor, played as a midfielder on the lacrosse team coached by his father, and in 2009 became the first player to be named National Midfielder of the Year three consecutive years.Third time's the charm for Salisbury's Kylor Berkman
''The Baltimore Sun'', May 20, 2009. Their daughter planned to attend Mount Saint Mary's University in 2010 to play women's lacrosse. His nephew, Rick Berkman, was an all American player for his uncle at Salisbury and has been the men's lacrosse coach at SUNY Potsdam for 29 years.

References

External links

Salisbury profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkman, Jim Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American men's basketball players Salisbury Sea Gulls men's lacrosse coaches St. Lawrence Saints men's basketball coaches St. Lawrence Saints men's basketball players St. Lawrence Saints men's lacrosse coaches St. Lawrence Saints men's lacrosse players College women's soccer coaches in the United States Sportspeople from Watertown, New York Basketball players from New York (state) Lacrosse players from New York (state)