Beyond the speeding cars of Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia, a high school basketball game is happening at the Houseman Recreational Center between the Gospel of Grace Christian High Saints and the New Beginnings Academy Warriors. The Houseman Rec Center is not the nicest place you will find, but it is good enough for head coach Mario Berrios and the team he coaches, the Saints. The roof reminds you of a warehouse, but the floors are freshly refinished and fit for a king. On this chilly Tuesday night the gym is not crowded, but does have a handful of people consisting of the plaer’s family and friends.
Berrios is only 22, but boasts two title game appearances in three years in the Delaware Athletic Conference to prove he belongs with the coaches twice his age. Berrios is also a married man and somehow manages to juggle that responsibility with his flooring job and coaching basketball.
His professional looks can be misinterpreted, because while he knows when to be serious, he is almost part of the team. He listens to the same music, watches the same TV shows, and goes through the same things young men do in life. Even though he does have all these similarities, the team gives him the due respect.
In a crammed weight room he gets his team’s adrenaline flowing by leading them in pregame shouting. “This is called our loud room” he chuckles.
Once the game gets underway, the gym is filled with cheering fans and the coaches barking out plays for their team. When the other team has the ball, Berrios is consistently heard yelling, “No fouls’ because he knows that fouls lead to easy points. The game remains close up till halftime and Berrios brings his team into the “Loud room” again to discuss halftime adjustments. From a knee he begins by listening to different players express their thoughts, before adding his own. “We are playing good so far, but let’s get out there and finish” he yells adamantly.
Berrio’s demeanor usually stays calm during a game and sets an example for his team about not getting too high or low. This kind of demeanor is important because getting too high may lead to his team getting overconfident and making them vulnerable to the other team coming back to win. If Berrios gets too low when his team is losing his team will sense that and not have the drive it takes to mount their comeback. By doing this he bangs home the idea that the game is not over till it’s over.
The Saints ended up losing the game in the end, but fought hard to the end losing by only four. I wandered back postgame to the “Loud room” to find the team looking kind of glum, but the coach seemed unaffected by the loss as he wished me a hardy goodbye after some small talk.
Berrios also serves as a mentor for his players who might need the voice of reason spoken to them from time to time. The ability to receive that voice from someone in a young man’s life could be the difference between a good career and a life of crime. “I usually try to stay pretty open with my players because talking with them can make a difference, especially with ones who have broken families.  Berrios teaches lessons of mental toughness, sportsmanship, passion, perspective and humility that can also serve his players off the court.
If we fast-forward a few days to Sunday I made my usual trip to “Gospel of Grace” church and conversed with the people after the church service till Mario was ready for his interview. Once we agreed to start we made the trip down the narrow stair way to the large cafeteria room so we would not be bothered. We sat in metal chairs in front of a long plastic table and began our interview. His demeanor is laid back and sets a calming effect about the conversation that could otherwise be awkward.
Berrios begins by telling of his early childhood and growing up in Northeast Philly with a mom and dad that separated when he was only two. He relates that the divorce was not too hard on him, because he was so young and the two sides have never been enemies.
Berrios bounced between schools in his early schools years before finally landing at Gospel of Grace Christian High school. In high school he starred on the basketball team as point guard and met his future wife. He had to ride the bench his first two years on the basketball team, but hard work at basketball summer camps finally got him the starting job. In his senior year, new head coach Dale Croy guided his team to the championship round, but Berrio’s team lost by 4.
After graduation, Berrios went to Baptist Bible College for a semester, but then soon discovered college was not for him. He then took a union flooring job under his dad, His specialty is putting in hardwood, but he now can do tile, ceramic, and linoleum. “I like working on hardwood the best because it reminds me of basketball” Berrios said. He work is usually done at normal everyday places, but he has got to work on the basketball courts of the Drexel Dragons.
Berrios still had the love of basketball though and wanted to be involved in it somehow, so he took an assistant coach position for his old coach for a year. At the end of the season Berrios agreed to take over the coaching position for his old coach, who quit for family reasons. Berrios took on this challenge even though he was only 19.
Berrios had a good group of players in his first year, mostly left over from the previous year and was able to guide them to the championship game, but lost in a blowout to Fair winds Christian High school. The following year was a bit of a struggle as the team rebuilt itself. That offseason, Berrios went out and recruited 4 new players. Equipped with this and the rest of his team a year older, Berrios again returned to the championship game only to lose to Concord High school.
I asked Berrios how he handled losing those championships and how he would get his team up to play the next year. Berrios referred to his faith by saying, “I just tell them there is more to life than basketball, we just try to learn from our mistakes and get better” he said. This year Berrio’s team is switching conferences from the Delaware Athletic Conference to the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Conference in search of state wide titles and recognition. “I just figured we needed to prove ourselves against tougher opponents, because blowing lesser teams out by forty wasn’t proving anything” Berrios said. In its first season in the conference the team has struggled to adapt and has also fallen victim to some bad breaks that have given them a record of 3-10.
The basketball championship trophy has eluded Berrios so far in both his playing and coaching career, but success in life has not. That is because his success is not based on trophies and high paying salaries, but by impacting the lives of young men through sports and life. He has not forgotten where he has come from and for this he has no fouls.