Looking to move up in his sixth year at SBU, head coach Sam Berg has young talent coming back for the 2005 season. Last year, he brought in one of his best recruiting classes and now he will combine that with the returning talent he has to push for a great 2005 season.

Last year, he coached his second all-MIAA first-team selection in pitcher Dustin Childress. Childress was also selected to the NCAA Division II all-Central Region second-team and broke numerous SBU pitching records.

Berg was named head baseball coach at SBU in May, 1999, after four seasons as head baseball coach, athletic director, and physical education teacher at Sparta (Mo.) High School. He took over the Sparta High School baseball program in the 1995-96 academic year and posted a 5-20 record in his first season. The following year, his team improved to 13-22 and he was named the SWCL Coach of the Year. The turnaround continued in 1997-98 when Sparta was 19-19 with an appearance in the district semi-finals. Then, in 1998-99, his team was 19-15 and ranked 5th among Missouri's 1-A schools for the first month of the season. They went on to place second in the SWCL tournament and again played in the district semi-finals.

Berg played collegiate baseball at Tabor College (Kan.) from 1980-82 where he was all-conference as a junior and academic all-conference as a senior. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration and economics from Tabor College in 1982.

In 1985, Berg received his secondary teaching certification in business and physical education from Emporia State University (Kan.). From 1984-86, he served as an assistant men's basketball at ESU.

From Emporia, he headed to Marymount College (Kan.), where he stayed from 1986 through 1988 as the head baseball coach and assistant men's basketball coach. He inheritated a baseball program that had not had a winning season in over 10 years. In 1988, he led Marymount into the NAIA District 10 post-season tournament for the first time in school history with a record of 19-18 and improved its record from 2-24 in 1987.

His next stop was at Missouri Valley College (Mo.) from 1989 to 1993 where he served as assistant baseball coach. Missouri Valley was 128-80 during Berg's four seasons and won the 1991 NAIA Distict 16 championship.

In 1994, Berg moved onto Central Missouri State University whre he served as an assistant coach. In that year, CMSU was 54-11 and won the NCAA Division II national championship. He completed his Master's degree in physical education and exercise and sport science from CMSU in 1999.

In 1999, he accepted the head coaching post at SBU. In his first year at SBU, the Bearcats were 23-27 overall and 14-16 in the MIAA. The 14 MIAA wins set a school record for most conference wins in a season, which also gave SBU a 6th place finish in the MIAA. SBU set new single season records with 367 runs scored, 482 hits, and 331 runs batted in.

Berg and his wife Lisa live in Bolivar with their four children, Brittney 16, Cody 13, Braden 8, and Cooper 4.