Berry hires former Aurora coach
| Berry athletics photo |
Rich Duncan, former head football coach at Aurora, has been named offensive coordinator at Berry, Vikings head coach Tony Kunczewski announced.
Duncan coached Aurora from 2005-2011, leading the Spartans to
the NCAA Division III national playoffs in 2008. That season,
Duncan was named the Northern Athletics Conference's coach of the
year after guiding Aurora to a 9-2 overall record, including an
undefeated mark in conference play.
He owns a 38-33 career record as a head coach.
Berry will play its first football game in 2013.
"We're so fortunate to have a coach with his experience and
history of success available to us," said Berry head coach Tony
Kunczewski. "He is a proven winner as both a head coach and
assistant, and his expertise on offense made him very attractive.
His offensive philosophy matched what we wanted.
"Most importantly he is a winner off the field, who comes highly
recommended by many in the way he prepares his players for life
outside of football."
For Duncan, the opportunity to work with Kunczewski was a major
factor in his decision to join the Vikings' staff.
"The opportunity to work with Tony, who is a bright young coach and
an up-and-coming guy in our business, was a big part of why I
decided to come here," Duncan said. "We have many common people in
our coaching tree, and everyone has great things to say about
him.
"But, also, I've always wanted to have the opportunity to be a part
of a startup football program at a place like Berry College, with
its academic tradition and its overall excitement surrounding
football. It's been a dream of mine to help start a program and the
traditions that come along with it at a place like Berry that has a
lot of its own traditions already."
Duncan, who spent this past spring as the offensive line coach at
St. Francis (Ill.), coached 80 All-Conference players during his
tenure at Aurora, including 10 who went on to become All-Region
selections and one All-American. Four Spartans earned Academic
All-District honors while being coached by Duncan.
He came to Aurora after spending four seasons as the offensive
coordinator and offensive line coach at Loras, where he coached
seven all-conference linemen.
Duncan served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach
at UW-Platteville in 1997 and 1998, before moving to the other side
of the ball as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach the
following two seasons. He coached a total of 12 All-Conference
players at UWP, including seven on the offensive side of the
ball.
Duncan was also the head baseball coach at UW-Platteville.
Prior to his stint at UWP, Duncan was the offensive line coach and
special teams coordinator, as well as an assistant athletics
director, at Capital from 1995-97, and the offensive line coach at
Mass-Lowell from 1992-95.
He began his coaching career as an intern at Manchester in 1991,
where he served as the team's offensive line coach, and was also an
assistant baseball coach.
Duncan and his wife, Karen, have two children, Molly and Jake.
