As the 12th of the 14 children born to the late Eldo and Agnes Bergman, and the seventh of eight sons, George Bergman grew up knowing the value of hard work and competition.
He used these tools to become an accomplished wrestler at Cardinal Stritch High School (Class of 1978), where he also played football for the Cardinals. He placed fourth at 155 pounds in Ohio's Class AA state tournament as a senior.
After continuing his education and wrestling in military prep school and then at the University of Toledo in the early 1980s, Bergman earned his bachelor's degree in education, and embarked on a career as a teacher and coach at Oak Harbor High School in 1986.
Having recently completed his 38th year as a physical education teacher, and his 32nd year as the Rockets' head wrestling coach, Bergman was down in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for part of his usual summer ritual — coaching area wrestlers at the annual Disney Duals — when he got a special surprise on June 23.
At an annual awards banquet held the day before the event, Bergman was honored as the 2023-24 AAU National Coach of the Year for his long service to the sport — outside of his 38 combined years in the junior high and high school levels back home in Ohio.
“I had no idea,” Bergman said of being informed of his national award. “They had me put in my resume two years ago, and they had me update it this year. Going there to the banquet I still didn't know.
“They had told my assistant coaches, and other people from Oak Harbor, but I didn't know until I got to the banquet. When I had to do my speech it was all impromptu. I was definitely surprised and very humbled. There's so many great coaches, and it's a great honor.”
It was a well-deserved award for Bergman's lifetime commitment to the sport, including 30-plus years of offseason work with northwest Ohio wrestling clubs. Included have been dozens of trips to different parts of the country for freestyle and Greco-Roman tournaments, coaching wrestlers from Oak Harbor and from several other area high schools.
“George is an amazing coach that has dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to the sport he loves,” Oak Harbor athletic director Dan Hoover said of Bergman. “This is a great honor going to an unbelievable coach.
“The Oak Harbor wrestling program would not be what it is today without his knowledge and selfless dedication. Oak Harbor is extremely lucky to have him leading and molding our student-athletes.”
Bergman was inducted into the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017.
He credits his family upbringing for launching him into the sport, which he began competitively as a 10-year-old while growing up in his farming family in Genoa. Around that time, one of his older brothers (Jim) was busy winning the 1972 AA state championship for Stritch at 167 pounds.
“Every day was like a wrestling match just to be able to eat,” Bergman joked about his family dynamic. “Growing up in the family that I was in, you basically got bumped around every day. So, that went right into the flow with sports. If it hadn't been wrestling, it would've been football or some other sport. Some kind of competition.
“When you have 14 kids in your family, everything is a competition. We had a farm, and it was could you hoe your row the quickest? Could you take your bike to the farm and beat your brother or sister there?”
This daily environment helped Bergman succeed on the mats, and that experience led to his now 54-year attachment to the sport. Once he transitioned from wrestler to coach, Bergman credits the hundreds of young wrestlers he's guided for any success he's had as their leader.
“You only get a coaching award if you've had great teams and great individuals,” Bergman said, “and I've been fortunate and blessed to have a lot of great individuals, and teams, that I just happened to be coaching.
“You need great athletes, and I've been blessed. You think of Ian Miller and [nephew] J.D. Bergman, and all the state champions and state placers that I've had the opportunity to coach. Our program has done well because of that.”
Miller, the D-II 145-pound state champion for Oak Harbor in 2010, went on the become a three-time All-American at Kent State, where he placed in the top six three times (fourth, fifth, and sixth) in NCAA tournaments.
J.D. Bergman [Jim's son] won 189-pound D-II state titles for the Rockets in 2002 and 2003, then qualified for the NCAA tournament four times while at Ohio State University, placing second in 2008, third in 2004, and fourth in 2007.
What has driven Bergman to continue so long as a wrestling coach is the satisfaction he gets from watching the joy in his wrestlers — all of them — when they achieve success.
“My charge is when I see them light up after they've won a big match,” Bergman said. “Maybe it's the first time they've placed at state, or their first time qualifying for state. I get a charge out of seeing them improve every year and reach new heights in their career.”
At age 64, Bergman insists that these are the heart-lifting experiences that have made the long journey so worthwhile.
“You start out and you want to be the best wrestler you can be,” he said. “Then, when your journey ends in college, you've spent so much time with your sport that it's in your blood.
“I had a younger brother [Chris] that wrestled, so I helped him out, and you start falling in love with helping other kids to reach their goals.”
From wrestling his first matches in fourth grade through his now 38 years in coaching, Bergman's connection to the mats has been an unbroken chain.
“I wrestled competitively for 12 years, then went right into coaching at the junior high level for six years,” he said. “I wrestled in college at Toledo and, when I was finished, I wanted to get into the coaching field.
“It was just kind of a natural progression, and I enjoyed helping kids reach their goals.”
In his 32 years as varsity coach, Bergman's program has produced 65 state-tournament placers, including 14 individual state champions. His Rockets, who moved to the Northern Buckeye Conference last fall, previously won nine team championships in the highly competitive Sandusky Bay Conference.
“This sport teaches you so much,” Bergman said. “The adversity is automatically built in. It's the oldest sport to mankind. Before we had basketball and baseball and football, we wrestled. And, since it started more than a thousand years ago, no one's ever gone undefeated.
“You're going to experience adversity in this sport. You're going to get beat. You're going to get picked up and thrown down, and it's how you react to that. I love to see how kids that lose come back.”
From the greatest of the champions to the wrestlers who struggled mightily before finding their own version of success, it is all the same to Bergman.
“I had a kid who was like 2-27 as a freshman, and then won a number of matches his last three years,” the coach said. “Now he's going to go wrestle in college. You see kids get knocked down and get right back up, and they learn. I think it helps their confidence.
“It's a very difficult sport, and to see them succeed gives you a thrill. It helps them mature as a person, and hopefully it helps them become a good husband, good employee, good father, good brother. You can use what you learn in other parts of your life.”
Other members of his family have seen great success in the sport — as wrestlers and coaches.
J.D. Bergman, was Oak Harbor's most successful wrestler, winning two state championship before becoming a three-time All-American at Ohio State.
“He was blessed with the most [wrestling] talent out of all of us by far, and it was the same thing that helped him be an all-state running back,” George said of J.D. “He had great balance, and his strength was off the chart. He was something special for sure. He won his final 86 matches in high school, and then he won the toughest tournament in high school, the nationals in freestyle [once] and Greco-Roman [twice] in Fargo [N.D].”
Another nephew, Genoa head wrestling coach Bob Bergman, guided the Comets to back-to-back Division III state team championships in 2018 and 2019 after finishing as runners-up in 2017.
How much longer will George Bergman remain in coaching?
“I don't know,” he said. “When I know it's time, I'll hang it up. I'm just taking it year by year.”
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