NCAA grant brings national champion into the Athletics Department.
Funding from a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Ethnic Minority and Women’s Internship Grant brought a national champion back to campus.
Marlee Berg ’09, former NCAA Division III women’s high jump champion, has returned to the Athletic Department as an assistant to the athletic director and an assistant coach for the Owls track and field program. “I’m thrilled to return to my alma mater and work with a department that has already given me so many valuable opportunities as a student athlete,” says Berg, a Chelmsford native. “I feel blessed to be awarded the grant position, as it will give me the opportunities to learn under the guidance of Athletic Director Dick Lenfest and participate in the NCAA’s career development program.”
Berg graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in communication with a concentration in public and corporate communication and won the NCAA Division III women’s indoor high jump title that year. She earned a master’s in exercise and sports studies from Smith College, where she served as a graduate assistant coach, and has served as an assistant track and field coach at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and at Brandeis University.
In her role at Westfield State, Berg will handle a variety of duties, including working with the Owls NCAA Compliance Program with Assistant Athletic Director Andrea Bertini. She also aided in the administration of the James Earley Memorial Cross Country meet and with the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championship that Westfield State hosted in November.
Westfield State previously obtained a similar NCAA grant-funded position from 2013 to 2015. “It’s rare for an institution to be successful in obtaining the grant funding in two years as close together as we did,” says Nancy Bals, associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator at Westfield State, who led the grant-application effort.
Dick Lenfest, director of Athletics, says, “We were really fortunate that someone with Marlee’s experience and coaching pedigree was available to us in the short time frame we had to hire for the position. We think we have an outstanding hire who can fit right into our administrative team.”
