Mike Bertsch is a former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and coach for

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

. 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 Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this y ...

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

his playing days were over, but his affiliation with his

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had only just begun. Bertsch returned to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

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 ...

to join the staff of his former

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

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

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

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 a modern payments and data company. Its four business divisions are B2B payments, data, print, and merchant services. Deluxe has approximately 3 million small businesses and 4,000 financial institutions as customers. De ...

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 a 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 governing body for organized ice hockey in the United S ...

, 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

Source:

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)