Mike Bertsch is a former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and coach for Colorado College. Bertsch is currently working for USA Hockey after spending several years in the private sector.

Career

Over Bertsch's 4-year stint as a player for the Tigers, he posted several good seasons as a scorer, finishing 6th all time in school history in 1972–73 with 145 points in 124 games. The scoring prowess did not, however, translate into much on-ice success as CC finished each season with a losing record and made the playoffs only once during his tenure (albeit as the final qualifier). Once Bertsch graduated from Colorado College his playing days were over, but his affiliation with his alma mater had only just begun. Bertsch returned to Colorado Springs in the fall of

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

to join the staff of his former

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Jeff Sauer Jeffrey Sauer (March 10, 1943 – February 2, 2017) was an American ice hockey player and coach. Sauer was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin from 1982 to 2002 and Colorado College from 1971 to 1982. While at Wisconsin, he led the Bad ...

as an assistant. Bertsch stayed in that role for four seasons before Sauer left to take over at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and Mike was chosen as his successor. After a stumble out of the gate, Bertsch pushed the Tigers to at least respectable records in the mid-1980s, but CC bottomed out in 1987–88 with a school record 33-loss season (though not the worst season in program history) and Bertsch was done as coach after the season. After leaving CC Bertsch moved on to the private sector, working for both Current Inc. and

Deluxe Corporation Deluxe Corporation is an American payments and business technology company. Its four business divisions comprise payments, cloud, promotional products, and checks. As of 2020, Deluxe has approximately 4.5 million small businesses and 4,000 fin ...

over a 14-year span. However, he couldn't stay away from the game and in 2003 began working for

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the Sport governing body, governing body for organized ice ...

, spending most of his time working in the business and marketing departments. As of 2014 Bertsch is still working for USA Hockey as Senior Director of Corporate Affairs.

Career statistics

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertsch, Mike Living people Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey coaches Colorado College Tigers men's ice hockey players Year of birth missing (living people)