Jean Berger opens up about her 8-year tenure as IGHSAU executive director

DES MOINES — Jean Berger owns a lake home.

But, as she said, “I’ve never truly LIVED at the lake. I’m ready to start.”

The executive director for the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, Berger, 65, announced her impending retirement earlier Feb. 20.

“You reach a point, and it’s just time,” Berger said in an interview with The Gazette on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena.

“Honestly I thought I would go longer. But one day, I literally woke up and said, ‘I don’t want to go longer.’”

A Winterset native, Berger was hired as the Union’s fifth leader, in 2016. Prior to her hiring, she was associate athletics director at the University of Northern Iowa.

She also served 17 years at Drake University in a variety of roles, including senior women's athletics administrator, assistant athletics director for internal affairs and associate athletics director.

In the aftermath of her announcement, Berger said she has had “two bad days.

“The day I told my staff, the Friday before state bowling, that was tough,” she said. “Once you say it out loud, it becomes real.

“And (Wednesday) was bad. Jill Hulsing is the daughter of my high school coach (Dallas Pals), and she said her dad would be so proud of the job I’ve done.”

During Berger’s tenure, two events stand out:

First, the state volleyball tournament left Cedar Rapids’ Alliant Energy PowerHouse after 30 years in favor of Coralville’s new Xtream Arena in 2022.

Second is the sanctioning of girls’ wrestling, which began in time for the 2023 state tournament.

“What I love about girls’ wrestling is the mental toughness it takes to participate in that sport,” Berger said. “The depth is getting better. The coaches are coaching. The kids are much more skilled than they were a year ago.”

Other issues remain. One of them is the continued slide of participation numbers in girls’ basketball.

Once the state’s unquestioned “it sport,” basketball now ranks fourth in participation, behind volleyball, track and field, and softball.

“I worry about it,” Berger said. “Most good basketball teams play seven or eight kids. How do you keep the 9-through-15 kids out? If you can’t keep those kids, what other opportunity do you give those other kids?

“It will be interesting to see what kind of bump there is, with the girls that are in, say, third and fourth grade, because of the Caitlin Clark effect. And it’s not just Caitlin, it’s Audi Crooks, too.”

On the other hand, Berger said that girls’ basketball has 300 more postseason-eligible officials than it did in 2017, though “we still have a shortage, and we still have age issues.”

Berger’s IGHSAU tenure will be remembered for its pink hue — “a very simple brand,” she called it — and a no-nonsense approach.

“I feel very confident that we’re in a better place that when I came, and I’m confident that the next person will continue to build and grow it,” she said. “Everything I tried to do is, ‘Is what we’re doing in the best interest of the Iowa Girl?’”

Berger anticipates that her successor will be in place by late April or early May.

“I’ll be ready to step aside so they can start,” she said.

And then?

“I’ll wake up the next morning, and I’ll do what I want to do.”

Who’s the next IGHSAU executive director?

Five potential candidates for the next executive director of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union:

Jenni Fitzgerald, special assistant to the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Iowa

Jan Jensen, University of Iowa associate head women’s basketball coach

D’Anne Kroemer, Pleasant Valley High School athletics director and former IGHSAU board member

Ann Lebo, performance results director for Early Childhood Iowa, and former director of the Iowa Department of Education

Tonya Moe, Linn-Mar High School athletics director and IGHSAU board member

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com