More Than
Average Bears

The Berkley football team
overcame adversity and a lack of
experience and size to land the
high school's first berth in the state
gridiron playoffs.

STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER

obody expected much from the
Berkley High School football team
this fall. After all, this was a squad
with just two returning starters
from last year's 6-3 team and a se-
rious lack of size.
But the Bears did everything but
go into hibernation. They won their
first five games, lost to Royal Oak
Kimball-and Ferndale, then re-
bounded with victories over Hazel
Park and Oak Park to finish the
regular season at 7-2.
That record gave Berkley a berth
in the state playoffs, a first for a
team which struggled to win a
game or two each season through
much of the 1970s and 1980s.
In a Class A pre-regional game
played on their home field, the
Bears stunned four-time state
champion Birmingham Brother
Rice 20-19.
The next week, Berkley slugged
it out with Kimball once again and
fell 9-6 in a regional championship
game contested in front of an esti-
mated 5,000 fans at Kimball. At the
end of their "season, the Bears were
one of just eight teams remaining
in the chase for the Class A state ti-
tle.
"Great year, great effort, great
kids, and great leadership from
our four senior captains," was how
Berkley coach Pat Fox summarized
the season. "The young men on
this squad all sacrificed personal
goals to ensure the success of the
team."
The Bears had to overcome
seemingly endless adversities to
achieve their accomplishments.
Three of the key players on the
team lost their fathers during the
season and an assistant coach un-
derwent heart bypass surgery.
While those events brought a
close team even closer together, Fox
said, it also matured the players.
Senior offensive tackle Dan Gold-
stein's father, Aaron, died early in
the week prior to the first Kimball
game. Mr. Goldstein had battled
leukemia for 18 months.
Just about the entire football
team attended the funeral service
for Mr. Goldstein at Hebrew Memo-
rial Chapel in Oak Park.
"It's a credit to Dan's resolve that
he was able to continue to play foot-
ball, go to school and take care of

his family, which was very impor-
tant to him," Fox said.
Goldstein didn't play well against
Kimball the Friday after his father's
death. In fact, he called it the "worst
game of my life. I really didn't care
that we lost, which isn't like me at
all. I didn't feel I was back to nor-
mal until after we beat Hazel Park."
Looking back on it now, Gold-
stein says football helped him deal
with his grief.
"It helped get my mind off a lot
of things and it was comforting to
have such a big second family," he
said.
At 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, Gold-
stein must have been one of the
smallest offensive tackles in Class
A. That didn't bother him when he
was carrying out his blocking as-
signments, however.
"I just stayed low," he said.
Two-way tackle Greg Lusardi, a
solidly-built 6-0, 230-pounder, was
one of Berkley's two returning
starters and a member of the quar-
tet of captains. His recovery of a
Brother Rice fumble on the second
play of the game led to the Bears'
first touchdown.
"Greg is a fine athlete and a sol-
id lineman, but those attributes are
dwarfed by his outstanding char-
acter," Fox said. "I'll miss Greg not
only as a football player, but as a
friend."
Lusardi; who is president of
Berkley's student body, says he'll
always remember the victory over
Brother Rice.
None of the so-called media ex-
perts gave the Bears much of a
chance to defeat the Warriors, "but
we thought we could beat them even
though they were so much bigger
than us," Lusardi said. 'The bottom
line is they were kids, just like us."
Other key players for Berkley
this fall included senior split
end/cornerback Eric Kaczander (6-
2, 180), junior center/defensive tack-
le David Gach (6-3, 220), senior
offensive tackle/defensive end An-
drew Sternberg (6-5, 300), senior
offensive tackle/defensive end
Bryan Fingeroot (6-0, 210), senior
wide receiver/defensive back Jason
Coleman (6-0, 170) and junior tight
end/defensive end Ben Gitler (6-1,
190).

BEARS page 92

Above: Ben Gitler (89)
blocks a Brother Rice
player.

Left: Ready for the snap are
Ben Gitler (89), Greg
Lusardi (72), David Gach
(50) and Dan Goldstein (56).