Baden Pronounce

Kim Berrington will start her 15th season as head coach of the Eastern Michigan University volleyball team when the Eagles open the 2010 season.

Berrington has been a permanent fixture in the consistent success of the EMU volleyball program. In fact, Berrington is the fourth-longest tenured head coach at the university.

The seventh coach in the program’s history, Berrington became its winningest coach on Sept. 20, 2003, as the Eagles posted a victory over East Carolina in the Coastal Carolina Tournament. The victory was Berrington’s 110th win at the helm of the EMU program. During her tenure as head coach, Berrington has posted an overall record of 206-223 and a 105-130 mark in conference play.

In 10 of the last 11 seasons she has led the Eagles to the Mid-American Conference Tournament, with the 1999 campaign marking the first time the squad has played in the postseason event since the 1990 season. Her teams have also led the MAC in digs seven of the last 13 seasons, including ranking nationally in six of those. She has also had 16 players earn All-MAC honors during her tenure.

In 2008, Berrington picked up her 200th EMU victory with a 3-0 victory over the University at Buffalo, Oct. 25, and the 300th win of her distinguished career with a sweep of the University of Toledo, Sept. 26, 2008. She currently holds sole possession of sixth place in the MAC record books for the most victories at a league institution, trailing Bowling Green State University’s Denise Van De Walle who holds the league record for most wins with 500 during her 27 years coaching the Falcons.

In the classroom, Berrington’s squads perennially have one of the top team cumulative grade point averages in the conference and have earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Academic Award on 10 separate occasions, which ranks fifth most nationally. This past semester the volleyball team earned one of the top GPA’s among EMU squads with a 3.493.

In 2007, the Green and White wrapped up the campaign with a 20-14 overall record and an 8-8 mark in conference play. The record was a seven-game improvement over the team’s 2006 mark when EMU finished at 13-17. Also, with a MAC Tournament Quarterfinal upset victory over No. 2 Western Michigan, the Eagles reached the 20-win plateau for the ninth time in the program’s history.

In 2005, Berrington guided the Eagles to a 22-7 overall record and a 14-2 Mid-American Conference mark en route to the program’s first-ever MAC West Division Championship. The Green and White’s 14 league wins were the most in program history. Leading the West Division from wire-to-wire in the regular season, Eastern Michigan was the second most dominant team in the MAC, winning 13 out of its last 15 matches to end the season.

Prior to taking over the role as head coach, Berrington served as an assistant coach at EMU from 1987-92. She was also the head women’s volleyball coach at Concordia (Mich.) College for four seasons, from 1992-96.

In four years as the head coach at Concordia, Berrington turned the women’s volleyball team into a national power. During those years, she built up a 103-76 overall record. Her 1995 team earned the school’s first national ranking and was the runner-up in the NCCAA National Championship Tournament in the school’s first-ever appearance. She also served as Concordia’s sports information director. Berrington was named Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Coach of the Year the last three years, after leading her team to the conference championship her final two seasons at the helm.
Berrington now has a career coaching record of 309-299 in 18 seasons.

The 47-year-old Berrington is a 1985 graduate of the University of South Carolina, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree from the College of Journalism. While at South Carolina, Berrington won four varsity volleyball letters and was one of 11 players awarded the Metro Conference Medallion for excellence in athletics and academics.

She earned her master’s of science in physical education from EMU in 1992. A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and a graduate of Norwin Senior High School in North Huntingdon, Pa., she earned three letters and helped the team win three state titles.

As the assistant women’s volleyball coach at EMU from 1987-92, Berrington helped the team to a 91-53 record. Eastern was invited to its first-ever National Invitational Volleyball Tournament in 1990 and the team finished second in the Mid-American Conference twice and qualified for the league’s postseason tournament four times.

Berrington played beach volleyball for more than 20 years while winning open tournaments in three decades (`80s, `90s and 2000). She played on the Midwest Professional Volleyball Association (MPVA) tour since its inception in 1991.

Berrington and beach volleyball partner, former EMU assistant coach Sara Schaub, captured more than 20 tournament titles together playing on various tours and events including the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) qualifiers, Bud Light Tour, East End Volleyball and Extreme Volleyball Professionals (EVP). In 2008, she officially retired from professional play.

During the summer of 2010, Berrington served as head coach of the Lakeshore Region Youth team that took part in the 2009 USA Volleyball High Performance Championship in the Wisconsin Dells The squad was comprised of girls from the state of Michigan that were born in 1993 and 1994.

Berrington and her husband, Chuck, reside in Britton, Mich., with their daughter, Kelsey (16).