By Jonann Brady
Berg, who joined the Bruins' varsity football team as a freshman and played in a record 36 consecutive games, missed his last hurrah in high school football, a trip to the Senior Bowl on Thanksgiving.
He broke his wrist while practicing for the game.
"Two helmets came down on it," Berg said nonchalantly.
If the 17-year-old seems casual about his injury, he has reason to be. He capped an extraordinary career with the Bruins by winning the coveted Martone award, given to Nassau County's top lineman.
His teammate, junior Will Barrow, won the Dragon Award as the county's best receiver. The two led a close-knit Bruins team to the county finals this year.
With the unglamorous task of blocking so other teammates can score, football linemen "do the job nobody wants to do," said Baldwin coach Steve Carroll. But Berg, who distinguished himself with heads-up, intelligent play, did so much more -- recovering fumbles, blocking punts, snagging interceptions.
"You tell him something once...and it's a done deal," said Carroll.
And Berg is far more than a football player. He was elected to Nassau County's Golden 11, the top scholar-athletes in the county. He talks excitedly about a video-production elective he is taking and, without a hint of boasting, recalls being named Homecoming King at halftime of the game against Uniondale -- a game in which he brought down the only interception of his career. He even characterized Baldwin's only loss of the season, to archrival Freeport, as "the greatest game, with so much back and forth."
Berg's unofficial press agent, his father, Al, can't help but break in. "He was voted 'Best to Bring Home to Mom and Dad' [by the senior class]," Al said.
Berg, the youngest of three sons, lost his mother to cancer two years ago, but his good nature and ability to get along with just about anyone never failed him.
He joined the varsity team when his older brother, Matt, who was also named to the Golden 11, was one of its stars. Asked if it was difficult to play in the shadow of his older brother, Berg laughed and said, "He's about as scary as it gets...After the first day it got easier. You come in and you're a team."
As Berg finishes his senior year, he is looking forward to his final season on the lacrosse field and deciding where to go to college. Right now, he's looking at SUNY Albany and Stony Brook.
Al Berg clearly relishes all his sons' accomplishments. "They're amazing kids," he said. "I just ride their coattails."
Sixteen-year-old Will Barrow didn't have to ride any coattails this season. His record stands on its own: He caught 32 passes for 610 yards and seven touchdowns, and returned a punt for a touchdown. Defensively, Barrow picked off eight interceptions, returning one for a touchdown.
As one of only three starters returning next season, Barrow will have a heavy load to carry, but one he seems more than willing to shoulder. "I know I might be changing to running back or quarterback," said the soft-spoken Barrow, who at 6-foot-1 and 160 pounds, seems deceptively small in person. "That's all right, as long as I'm helping out the team."
Coach Steve Carroll is nearly dumbfounded when trying to describe his top playmaker. "I don't know how to explain him," said Carroll. "He's just off the charts. He's just too good."
Like Berg, Barrow is far from a one-trick pony. He, too, is an honor student and a star on the lacrosse field. He reveals, perhaps to the chagrin of some football fans, that he likes lacrosse even more than football.
Barrow's academic and athletic abilities have not gone unnoticed by the outside world. He is already being courted by big-name schools such as Duke, Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, Cornell and Brown.
Barrow's mother, Rita, said that she and his father are letting Will make up his own mind about college, but that they're trying to steer him toward an Ivy League school. "Whatever he wants to do, as long as we agree," she said with a laugh.
Barrow, who has a 12-year-old brother and five-year-old sister, is also humble about his accomplishments, and is simply looking forward to getting back on the playing field, this time with a lacrosse stick in his hands.
Asked if he is something of a minor celebrity in the halls of Baldwin High School, Barrow shrugged and smiled just a little. "Yeah," he admitted, "but I try not to get a big head about it."
