Published: April 08, 2009 11:34 pm      

Berry resigns as coach at MSU

Tim Berry is leaving one arena and entering another. Well, re-entering.

The Mountain State University softball and volleyball coach has resigned both positions, effective June 30, to get back into politics.

It’s an area he has experience in and Berry said he intends to run for the House of Delegates next year.

“Yeah, we’re going to go back into politics and I just think now is a good time to do it,” he said. “My committee who has helped me with my political aspirations kind of talked to me about making a run at the House of Delegates. Next spring is the election and I thought it was time to free myself up so I can devote myself full-time to my campaign.”

Berry leaves behind two programs he guided from perennial losers to winners in the space of just a couple of years.

In fact, his softball team had a winning record his first year at the helm, the school’s first. It also won a KIAC title and his volleyball program won a conference tournament.

Perhaps his best job was guiding his softball team to a regional berth.

“We were 1-9 to start the season and we made a spring trip to Florida,” Berry said. “The girls came out of Florida on fire. We went on to finish 16-4 in the conference and we lost to Indiana Southeast by a run in the regional tournament.”

The job he did building the programs into winning squads wasn’t lost on the athletic department.

“I certainly appreciate what Tim has done for Mountain State University over the past 12 years,” MSU athletic director Bob Bolen said. “And I wish him the best in his political career.”

Berry remembers Bolen approaching him before a basketball game in 1996.

“I had been supervising the building of the Woodrow Wilson softball field and coach Bolen asked me if I would submit a proposal on what it would take to start a softball program,” Berry said. “In 2001 he asked me if I would take over the programs and it’s been a great ride since then.”

Berry, a former city policeman and city councilman, said he will miss the daily interaction with his players.

“And the employees of the university always treated me like a family member,” he said. “I know there are sometimes differences between athletics and the academic world, but it was never like that at (Mountain State).”

Berry started coaching in Beckley Little League in the 1980s and said he will still run the Warren Williams Girls Softball League in the summer to keep his hands in coaching.

And Berry figures, at least to some, he will always be “coach.”

“I retired from the police force in 1993 and some people still refer to me as ‘Officer Berry,’” he said. “I’ve been coaching for 22 years. I figure that ‘coach Berry’ will stick, too.”