By John Raffel
For more than 50 years, Rockford’s Lyle Berry has been a high school official and a contributor to several officials’ associations.
As a result, in early May, Berry was given the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Vern L. Norris award, which the MHSAA says “is presented annually to a veteran official who has been active in a local officials’ associations, has mentored other officials, and has been involved in officials’ education.”
“Lyle Berry has dedicated a lifetime to bringing a fair and objective voice to our competitions,” said MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts in an MHSAA press release. “His dedication to that mission is obvious as he continues into his sixth decade of officiating.”
The award is named after former MHSAA executive director Vern L. Norris.
Berry has lived in Rockford 10 years. He previously resided in the Godwin Heights school district, where he taught and coached for 22 years. He coached varsity football 25 years.
He started his career in Tawas and made stops at Farwell and Wayland before winding up in Godwin Heights in 1971.
He also coached baseball. “When I got out of baseball, I got into track officiating,” he said. “In football at Godwin Heights, I won the most games of any coach over the years I coached there, basically due to longevity. We won three [conference] championships and made the playoffs once. In baseball, in 1975, we were state runners-up in Class B.”
As a teacher, he started out with elementary physical education and science and later taught strictly physical education. He retired in 1990 after 30 years of teaching but stayed on and coached football two more seasons.
He’s an inductee in both the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Michigan High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
The Grand Rapids native participated in cross country, basketball, and track during high school days at Grand Rapids Central.
“When I went on to junior college [Grand Rapids Community College], my first year I majored in four sports: football, basketball, baseball, and track,” Berry said. “I was the first four-letter winner in the history of the college. I moved on to Central Michigan University and played one year of baseball.”
Berry noted that the Norris Award covers various areas of recognition. He was president and rules chairman off and on for the West Michigan Officials Association (WMOA) and also president and active member of the Association of Track Officials of Michigan (ATOM).
Berry has actually been in officiating for 52 years.
He officiated high school and college basketball for 28 years. He saw action in the Mid-American Conference. It’s his 32nd year of track. With some overlapping, it adds up to 52 total years.
Berry chuckled while recalling how he got involved in officiating.
“Back in college, I was doing some intramural ball making a couple of bucks a game and trying to stay above water while I was in school,” he said. “That’s when I first got started. I never intended to get into it. Once I did, I liked it. When I graduated from Central, I registered with the state for basketball.
“The first four or five years, it was kind of lean because I was teaching in the Tawas area, and at that time no one was doing junior high or freshman basketball, so all I had to do was JV basketball. But schools are so far apart up there that you’d get very little opportunity. It kept me off the general list for five years.”
Berry moved back to Grand Rapids in 1965.
“There was an abundance of games to do,” he said. “Within a matter of a couple of years, I was on the approved list.”
In basketball, Berry had a chance to officiate a Class A quarterfinal game when Magic Johnson was a sophomore at Lansing Everett.
Berry, who also has done cross country meets, said he never would have predicted how long he’d be officiating when he first started.
“Money wasn’t an issue because when we started, money was scarce. We were doing JV games for $7 and varsity for something like $12 a game,” Berry said “As time when on, it became a real enjoyment in life.”
Berry acknowledged that basketball might be the most difficult sport to officiate and pointed out that when he retired from basketall officiating in 1988, it was still a two-man crew per game. “I never did it with three,” he said. “It was four or five years too soon for me. I think it makes a difference from the standpoint of the endurance and the way the game is called. I think it’s a much better called game than what we could do.”
Being a track official offers its various challenges, Berry has found.
“In a lot of the high school meets, sometimes you’re part clerk and sometimes you’re part referee,” Berry said. “You’re basically in charge of that meet. There’s an awful lot of responsibility.”
In recent years, most meets, including those at the state finals and regionals, have cameras and computers at the finish line rather than place pickers and stopwatches.
“It helps tremendously and takes care of all the people that question results at the end,” Berry said. “On occasion, it tends to slow meets down. It depends on technology and who’s running it. Some of the meets I do are hand-held by people with the [old] system and once in awhile with people holding stop watches. They do a great job.”
Berry figures he’ll continue to officiate meets for awhile.
“I’ve got dates in the book for next year, but how many I’ll do I don’t know,” he said. “Last year I underwent major back surgery. I started out my schedule with 10 to 12 and they kept calling me. I’ve got 25 under my belt and five more to do. I’ll probably be doing state finals. I’ve got double regionals and the MITCA state meet and the individual state meet. It’s still heavy.”
Winning the Norris award meant a lot for Berry.
“It’s probably the biggest thrill that I’ve had,” he said. “They pinpoint someone who’s had a lot of years in officiating and has made a lot of contributions and has been active in your association.”