Iowa City West’s Bergman closing in on 500 wins

IOWA CITY - A couple of years ago or so, Iowa City West's boys' basketball team was playing a game at Linn-Mar.

It was big, as it always seems to be when these perennial powerhouses meet, and not going particularly well at this moment for West.

While his team is fumbling around with the ball and generally being incompetent, at least in his eyes, head coach Steve Bergman finally has had enough. Flabbergasted, he throws his arms into the air, rolls his eyes toward the heavens and calls timeout.

'What offense are we running?” Bergman asks his team, which is gathered around him. 'Because it sure as hell ain't ours.”

It was the quintessential Bergy moment – kind of loud, kind of startling and kind of funny.

Let's just say few expect more, which is probably why few have won more.

'There are a lot of expectations that he has for us,” said West sophomore Connor McCaffery, son of Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery. 'He gets the best out of us at the end of the day just because of what he demands and how we respond to that.”

'I've always tried to throw a little humor around with them because it can't be all life and death,” Bergman said. 'I know I'm demanding. You can ask them, but I know some of them don't like playing for me at certain times probably. But they like the results.”

Oh, the results. The 56-year-old Bergman goes into this week's state tournament with a career record of 498-175 in three seasons at Monticello, one at West Liberty and the past 25 at West.

The Trojans have won five state championships under his guidance, which places him second on the all-time coaching list behind the legendary Paul Moon at Davenport and Western Christian's Jim Eekhoff. They've won seven each.

West has won the last three Class 4A titles, a state record. No school, regardless of class, has won four in a row.

The Trojans (23-0) are favored, some say heavily favored, to accomplish just that.

'We've talked about it with our guys maybe twice,” Bergman said. 'I just said that there's a chance to make history, and the thing is, if it's history, then it must be really hard to do. I think they know why. Everything's got to go right. We've still got to make things go right against a lot of good teams for another week.”

Bergman is a Grundy Center native who comes from a basketball family. His father played, and his uncle, Bud Bergman, was a hall of fame coach at Waverly-Shell Rock.

Bergman grew up attending the state tournament, figuring he has been to Des Moines every year but one since he was 5 years old. The year he missed was 1988, when he coached, believe it or not, a professional team in Iceland.

Yes, Iceland.

'Coached kids this tall (holding his hand up at about his waist), all the way up to 35-year-old firemen,” he said. 'I had a friend at the University of Dubuque, where I had worked, who had done it. His wife got pregnant, and they didn't want to have the baby in Iceland. He asked me if I wanted it, and I thought ‘Yeah, the timing is right to do something like that.' It was a good deal.”

He took the West Liberty job upon returning to the States, then ended up at West. He said he has had overtures from Kirkwood Community College a couple of times over the years when it was looking for a head coach, but the timing was never right.

He has remained a high-school coach, and a great one, as it has turned out.

'It's been a pleasure to play for him,” said senior wing David DiLeo. 'He never wants you to dog anything, whether it's the last drill of practice or just a simple form-shooting drill. He wants you to be focused and give everything 100 percent. That's why he gets his teams to play so hard. He's also very dedicated. He watches a lot of film, gets us prepared very well with a scouting report.”

'He has really high expectations for the kids, and I think people know that about him,” said West Activities Director Scott Kibby. 'But he has incredible expecations for himself, too. He is a student of the game, always learning, going to clinics, watching others coach. He breaks down an amazing amount of film on his opponents. There is no one that we play that he hasn't watched a half-dozen games of. He's very smart, and when he sees stuff on film, he can conceptualize what it takes to shut down the opponents' favorite things to do.”

If there is one thing about West under Bergman, it's that you know it's going to get in your face defensively. If you score points against the Trojans, you are going to earn them.

'I used to come down here every year and just picked his brain on defense,” said West assistant coach Gordon Rundqust, who joined Bergman's staff 10 years ago as a retired volunteer.

Rundquist was a hall of fame head coach with 559 career victories at West Branch and Maquoketa Valley.

'He is, by far, the best defensive coach that I've ever been around,” Rundquist said. 'I've told him if we had played defense at Maquoketa Valley the way we do here, I wouldn't have had one kid left by halftime. I mean, I got all his drills over the years. He is phenomenal on defense.”

'I will say this. That is something that I've always liked to do,” Bergman said. 'Every coach has something that kind of stimulates them, something they like to think about and work on. I think I'm lucky that that's what I like to do because I think defense is what wins you a lot of tough games ... The saying that ‘Defense wins championships' probably has a lot of truth to it.”

And if there's anyone that knows a little something about championships, it's Steve Bergman. It couldn't be more appropriate that he could get his 500th career victory while chasing another one.

West plays Sioux City North (14-9) in a 4A quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon at 1:05 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

'I didn't hear that question,” he said, in typical Bergy style, when asked what 500 wins would mean to him. 'That's how much it means to me. If I don't keel over dead, I'll probably get there. What I am worried about is these guys going down to Des Moines and winning one game, so we get to play two more. That's it.”

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