Fountain Valley Selects Berg to Coach Football

George Berg has been named head football coach at Fountain Valley High School, Athletic Director Mike Henigan announced Wednesday.

Berg has been a Barons’ assistant coach for 19 years. He replaces Mike Milner, who was hired as El Toro’s coach Feb. 21.

“George is a very positive person,” Henigan said. “He’s been a part of the program for a long time. He’s familiar with the players and they’re familiar with him.”

Milner was 77-63-2 during his 12 years as head coach at Fountain Valley. Berg was one of his top assistants and has been a linebacker coach since 1972. He also has worked with running backs and kickers.

“It definitely helps to come into a program you already know,” said Berg, 41. “I’m taking over a good program that’s well-established and had good leadership under Mike. We’ve had our successes as well as recent failures.”

The Barons won five league titles and went to three Southern Section championship games under Milner. Fountain Valley won the Division I title in 1988.

However, declining enrollment has hurt the program and the Barons have won only three games in the past two seasons.

“I think we have a good chance of turning things around,” Berg said. “We have to face the drop in enrollment, but everyone else (in the Sunset League) has to face it, too. I think that the program is going in a pretty good direction.

“We had a strong sophomore team last fall and I expect many of those players to contribute as juniors. Also, we had 70 players come out for freshman football.”

The hiring of Berg was made easier because he already had a teaching position at Fountain Valley. He is a health and physical education teacher at the school.

“Because of our downsizing, the school couldn’t go outside to look to bring in people,” Henigan said. “But George would have been a viable candidate anyway. He is among the top echelon of coaches we would have interviewed.”

Berg graduated from Westminster High School, where he was a standout linebacker. He spent two years at USC before transferring to Orange Coast College.

He finished his college career at Cal State Long Beach. Berg graduated in 1971 and was hired as an assistant football coach the following year. He began teaching at Fountain Valley in 1973.