Longtime Mayville State University head coach Scott Berry is the recipient of the 2017 ABCA Ethics in Coaching Award. The year's award will be presented during the clinics at the ABCA Convention on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 in Anaheim.
The ABCA Ethics in Coaching Award honors an individual who embodies the ABCA Code of Ethics. The American Baseball Coaches Association believes that the highest calling of a baseball coach is to teach life's lessons and model the character traits of honesty, integrity, respect and personal responsibility.
A very active participant in local, state, and national baseball organizations, Berry has been heavily involved with the ABCA for four decades. In addition to serving as ABCA President in 2014, Berry currently serves on the ABCA's Board of Directors and Nominations Committee. Additionally, Berry has been involved in the North Dakota Baseball Coaches Association, North Dakota Amateur Baseball Coaches Association, North Dakota College Athletic Conference and USA Baseball.
Berry is also going to be inducted to the ABCA Hall of Fame during the convention in Anaheim.
Under Berry's guidance, Mayville State has won 23 regular season conference championships, including 17 consecutive titles from 1986-2002. Additionally, the Comets have collected 21 conference tournament championships and have appeared in the NAIA national playoffs 26 times, including in 2016. In those 26 appearances, Berry's teams have won three NAIA regional titles, the 2002 Plains Super Regional title and had a top-five finish at the NAIA World Series in 2002.
Berry has also been honored with induction into the Mayville State University Athletic Hall of Fame, the NAIA Hall of Fame for Baseball, the North Dakota Amateur Baseball Association Hall of Fame and the Christian Sports Commission Hall of Fame. He has also been honored with the North Dakota Associated Press Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association "Special Achievement Award", the NAIA Robert E. Smith Achievement Award and the FCA Jerry Kindall Character in Coaching Award.
In 2016, Berry became one of six active NAIA coaches to have eclipsed the 1,000-win mark. His career record as head coach stands at 1,012-573-1, which is good for a .683 winning percentage. He ranks fifth among active NAIA coaches in career wins despite the fact that over 75 percent of the games in his career have been played away from Mayville State's Scott Berry Field, which was named in his honor in 2010.
Berry has been named as Conference Coach of the Year 23 times, District 12 Coach of the Year nine times and NAIA Region Coach of the Year four times and he has coached 35 NAIA Scholar-Athletes, 25 NAIA All-Americans and 22 players who have signed professional contracts.
A Mayville State graduate, Berry coached high school baseball teams in Ellendale, Binford, Rolla and Casselton, North Dakota. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant under ABCA Hall of Famer Al Meyer in 1981 and became the head coach the following year. Berry also coached the summer amateur baseball team in Mayville, with his "Red Caps" competing in the state finals six out of seven years and coming away with championships in 1981 and 1984.