Longtime Langley High golf coach still involved in high-school game

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

That’s kind of what Al Berg did this season when he became an assistant coach for the Cosby Titans high-school golf team in Midlothian.

For the previous 27 years, Berg had been the head golf coach at Langley High School in McLean, leading the Saxons to nine state championships, including seven in a row from 2016 to 2022, eight region crowns and more than a dozen district titles. In dual matches, Langley won nearly 175 times.

Many of his players have won countless individual high-school crowns, going on to play in college and professionally.

In his final season and last event with Langley in the fall of 2023, Langley finished third in the state tournament by one stroke behind second-place Cosby.

“It was close and we couldn’t beat them last year,” Berg said. “Now I’m involved with them.”

For years, Berg has lived about five miles from Magnolia Green Golf Club southwest of Richmond. He regularly made the often traffic-clogged commute up and down Interstate 95 when he coached Langley.

With the Cosby team practicing at Magnolia Green, where Berg often plays the course, he met some of the players. Berg eventually connected with the Titans’ new young head coach, offered his services as an assistant, and quickly was brought on board.

“This has worked out well, and it’s a lot of fun,” Berg said.

“It didn’t last long,” Berg said of being away from the high-school game. “Plus, now I don’t have that stress of traveling 95.”

In recent days, Berg helped Cosby finish second in its region tournament to qualify for the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state tourney . That one-day, 18-hole event is Oct. 15 at The Golf Club at Lansdowne in Loudoun County.

So Berg will again have to make that trip along I-95, and he knows well many of this season’s Langley players.

“I’ll probably be wearing a Langley shirt and a Cosby hat,” Berg said. “They won’t know what to do with me.”