April 04, 2012|By Edward Lee
Several weeks after Navy’s Cindy Timchal became the first college lacrosse coach – men’s or women’s – to reach 400 wins, Salisbury’s Jim Berkman could join her if the top-ranked and reigning national champion Sea Gulls defeat Capital Athletic Conference rival Mary Washington Wednesday afternoon.
Berkman is 399-42 in 25 years of coaching and 390-37 in 24 seasons at Salisbury, which has captured nine NCAA titles under Berkman. Berkman, who was traveling Wednesday morning with the team to Fredericksburg, Va., acknowledged the potential achievement, but that’s about it.
“I really haven’t thought about that a whole lot,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve won a lot of games here and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of good teams, but I don’t think it’s anything that I think about. A lot of people are constantly reminding me that it was coming up this year. But we’re always thinking about the next game.”
Berkman, who returned to the Sea Gulls March 19 after suffering a mild heart attack on March 11, chuckled when asked if he would be happier after the game when he no longer has to think about win No. 400.
“It’s a tremendous achievement,” he said. “It’s a reflection of all the great players and teams that we’ve had here, and it’d be nice to get it out of the way today so that it won’t take away our attention to our next opponent. Jim Berkman has never scored a goal and has never gotten a groundball in 24 years [at Salisbury]. It’s all about the players, it’s all about the program.”
