Christian Berger Follows Brotherly Advice

by Jashvina Shah

Growing up the youngest of five siblings has some perks. For Christian Berger, the youngest of five boys, it meant receiving one piece of valuable advice: There’s no need to rush.

Entering the 2017-18 season, Berger decided between playing in the USHL or AAA in St. Louis. Originally, Berger wanted to play in the USHL. But his older brothers advised him to stay home, citing players who had rushed into their careers, which then ended suddenly.

“Just to take it one year at a time, and it’s really fun so you don’t want to waste it,” Berger said. “Every year’s a blast and not to think about what’s coming next just have fun. There’s a lot of things that can go well just staying back one more year.”

Berger grew up skating around the age of two and has played his whole life, following his dad and his four older brothers. One of his older brothers, Chase, also faced the same dilemma when he was younger. Chase chose to spend an extra year in St. Louis and then jump to the USHL, where he played for the Tri-City Storm for two seasons. Chase just finished his junior year at Penn State and has produced 69 points over his career.

“If it was just my dad telling me [to stay] it would be one thing, but obviously it’s worked out for him really well,” Christian said. “That was really a good example of if I stay, I can still have a lot of success. My brother is at Penn State, scoring goals. He found a way to develop his game in AAA and I think that I can do the same.”

Christian not only followed Chase to an extra year of AAA, but he also followed Chase to Penn State. Christian recently committed to the Nittany Lions to play under Guy Gadowsky, who also recruited and coached Christian’s eldest brother, Jack, for a season at Princeton. Gadowsky has known the Berger family for 10 years, and Christian even watched Jack play under him at Princeton.

Christian’s final four choices were Ohio State, Penn State, Cornell and St. Cloud. St. Cloud was the first school that contacted Christian, but the defenseman wanted to play in the Big Ten. He visited Ohio State and Penn State.

“The one thing that I liked about Penn State compared to Ohio State, it’s really hockey-specific, the development. They don’t share any facilities with the other sports teams, it’s purely based on hockey,” Christian said. “And they have a lot of really cool facilities, physical amenities and stuff like that. But I really like their coaching staff most of all. Great coaching staff, coach Gadowsky, coach [Keith] Fischer, two really good guys and seems like they’re great coaches.

Staying an extra year has its on-ice benefits but also its off-ice benefits, as it eliminated a need to finish schooling online.

“My brother’s doing pretty well academically, and they just helped me to think of the after hockey part of it. They said that one more extra year of schooling could really help you when you get to college,” Christian said. “Just being a kid, going to dances. Because really hockey becomes just a job, and not that it’s less fun, but it becomes more of a job.”

Christian will attend Penn State in 2019. He was drafted by Green Bay in the 2017 USHL draft but was traded to Madison. At the end of last season he played four games with Madison, and this year he skated in seven.

“With St. Louis, I really have a good chance to develop the offense in my game, get the puck a lot, be on the power play,” Christian said. “Also being able to play with Madison for several games this year will just give me the speed and where I need to be next year to try to be a dominant player in that league. Other players in my age group that are top in the country, that are getting drafted this year in the NHL, are playing in that league.

“To play against them, see where I am compared to them, see where I need to be, it’s really helpful. Just the speed of the game and the little things that I need to work on really help my game.”

Christian is also eligible for the NHL draft this season. He always wanted to go the college route, but knew it was still possible without being drafted into the USHL.

“If you’re still going to make it to that point, you might as well take the time to develop your offensive game and get to have a little bit of a high school experience in St. Louis, so it was a combination of things,” Christian said. “Things have gone well, so I don’t need to go play there. I’d still be all right if I stayed.

“I’d just say that their advice is that there’s a lot of stuff that you’d miss out on here, especially when you’re going to get to that level anyway, why would you leave. Especially when you can still develop your game.”

Berger was partly able to stay in St. Louis because of how the state’s youth hockey has grown in the past decade. The city, and the St. Louis AAA Blues organization, has produced drafted players like Trent Frederic, Ryan MacInnis, and Luke Martin. Luke Kunin, currently playing professional hockey in the Minnesota Wild organization, also played in St. Louis.

“St. Louis used to, we used to be really bad 10-15 years ago, and was never very good, and now we’re usually a top team in the country, whether its top 20 or top 10,” Christian said. “It’s pretty exciting because we don’t do much recruiting, we just stick with St. Louis kids and I think that helps too. It gives a bunch of St. Louis kids a chance to get better, develop, and I think that’s a factor too.”

 

Photo credit: Hickling Images