Dickinson junior Troy Berg was named to the 2020 All State Defense First Team on Wednesday,
Despite the Midgets ending the 2020 season with a 1-6 record, Berg led the team in solo tackles and was the second leader in total tackles for the team. Midgets Head Coach John Tuchscherer praised the junior on his performance this season.
" I think even as an underclassmen he’s one of our leaders on this team," he said "There’s a lot of guys that really came in and put the work in, and I’m just happy that his hard work paid off and he’s getting the recognition that he deserves.
"He’s obviously a pretty important part of our team and what we try to do both offensively and defensively, he’s on majority of our special teams too," Tuchscherer added. "Offensively our run game goes through him, and I think teams obviously know that and prepare for that, and it gives us an opportunity to do some stuff in the pass game, off the run and then defensively he’s just a guy that is around the ball all the time."
The junior discussed the moment he learned he was named to the NDHSAA 2020 All State Defense Team and what it means to him now.
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"I'm pretty excited for it," Berg said. "It wasn’t something that I was really expecting, I guess. When (coach Tuchscherer) called me and told me, I was pretty excited."
While Berg is known for being the hard-working running back on the Midgets offensive end, he went on to mention why he felt he was named to the All State roster as a defender.
"Being able to move around," he said. "I didn’t always have that opportunity, but being able to just fly around the field and get to the places I needed to be to be in order to make the play that would help the team."
While Berg is happy and excited to have earned the accomplishment, especially as a junior, he said he does not feel any pressure from earning the award going into his senior season. His only goal is to play the best he can and help his team get the win every week.
"Going into senior year, I feel like you still got to go into it the same way, whether you have (the award) or not," Berg said. "If you go into it thinking you’re a big dog since you got All-State, I feel like you’re kind of putting yourself in a hole right away."
