James Berkman is an American

college lacrosse College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and university, 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 ...

coach. He has served as the head coach at

Salisbury University Salisbury University is a public university in Salisbury, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1925, Salisbury University is a member of the University System of Maryland, with a fall 2022 enrollment of 7,123. Salisbury University offers unde ...

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 simply Potsdam) is a public college in Potsdam (village), New York, Potsdam, New York, United States. Founded in 1816, it is the northernmost member of the State University of New Yo ...

(SUNY Potsdam) in 1985. Salisbury has won 12 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championships and 19 Capital Athletic Conference (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'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 Watertown is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River, about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the t ...

. He attended nearby

St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college in the village of Canton in St. Lawrence County, New York. It has roughly 2,100 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Though St. Lawrence today is nonsectarian, it was founded in 1 ...

, 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 The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

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 (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 particular competition, or ...

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 Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

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 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

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

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, 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 The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is an association of member institutions and organizations with college lacrosse programs at all levels of competition, including the three NCAA divisions and non-NCAA schools, at both the varsi ...

(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, he surpassed

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

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. 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 Salisbury ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 United States census ...

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 Mount St. Mary's University is a Private university, private Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland, United States. It has the largest Catholic seminary in the United States. Undergraduate programs are divided between the College of Libera ...

in 2010 to play

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a field sport played at the international level with two opposing teams of ten players each (12 players per team at the U.S. domestic level). Originally played by indigenous ...

. 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)