Jen Berke’s children have never thought twice about what their mother does on the weekends in the fall.
For 11-year-old Mikayla and 9-year-old Calvin, having their mother don her black-and-white striped uniform to officiate NCAA football games is merely a fact of life.
“For the first many years, I was really purely doing it just because it was fun,” said Berke of her now 12-year tenure officiating football games ranging from youth fields in southwestern Pennsylvania to NCAA Division I stadiums across the country. “I wasn’t making any money at all, but it kind of kept me going that it was proof to my daughter that you can, as a female, do whatever you want to do.
“Since I have been doing this literally for her entire life, she doesn’t know any different,” Berke added. “I think they both just kind of take it for granted now. They think this is just what moms do.”
Mikayla and Calvin’s mom is about to officiate the biggest game of her career this weekend.
Jen Berke, a member of a 10-person crew of officials, will work the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl between Utah State (6-6) and Georgia State (6-6) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday on the renowned blue turf of Boise State University’s Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho.
The game will be Berke’s first FBS bowl. As a member of the Collegiate Officiating Consortium, she is accredited to officiate games in the FCS Missouri Valley Conference and the FBS Mid-American and Big Ten conferences.
“It’s unbelievable,” Berke said. “It’s going to be so amazing. I never even dreamed 12 years ago when I started doing this that I would end up this fast being able to work a bowl game, but it’s also such a great reward. I do work really hard at this. It’s so much more work than anybody who doesn’t do this would realize.
“It’s a year-round thing. Even though it’s just seasonally we’re on the field, in the offseason we are constantly studying, meeting up with study groups, doing quizzes, going to clinics. It’s a lot of work. It’s so nice to have this as a reward for a season well done.”
Berke, a Hampton resident, will travel to Boise with plenty of support from her husband, Brian, and their children, along with friends and family who are making the trip to cheer on their favorite official.
“That’ll be really fun,” Berke said. “Geographically, it’s working out great because we were already planning to visit my mom in Las Vegas, so now we’re just bypassing through Boise first.”
Berke’s odyssey toward becoming a Division I football official began with what she said was a mostly rural upbringing. She is a 2001 graduate of Elizabethtown High School near Hershey, where she earned varsity letters in volleyball, basketball and track & field before matriculating to Pitt.
“I played rugby my freshman year in college and then I was a chemistry major so it made life difficult to actually do anything other than study,” Berke said. “Once I graduated, I just kind of really realized that I was missing being on a team. I heard an advertisement on the radio that the Pittsburgh Passion was having a tryout. So I just went to this open tryout and made the team.”
Berke’s career with the professional women’s football franchise spanned four seasons from 2008-11. She played wide receiver and defensive back while also performing on special teams as a punt and kick returner and holder.
“I became pregnant with my daughter, and then I just didn’t want to risk the injury while I had a baby to take care of,” Berke said.
While she was playing for the Passion, however, Berke said the path toward her true calling would begin.
“The NFL came and did a one-night officiating clinic to try and get women interested in officiating,” she said. “That’s when I initially got on the NFL’s mailing list. I didn’t follow up with it right away because I was so busy playing, but it ended up, I told my mom at the time, ‘I just heard this amazing presentation. I think once I’m a mom I would want to officiate football. She was like, ‘What in the world are you talking about?’”
Then, Berke said, “fate” stepped in.
“A week after I gave birth to my daughter, someone from the NFL called me personally to invite me to this officiating clinic they were going to have in Ohio that summer,” she said. “So every Thursday night that summer, I went to this clinic. I had told my mom at the time, ‘Oh, my gosh, the NFL called me, but I don’t know, now I have a baby to take care of.’ She was like, ‘Are you crazy? You have to do this.’”
The camp in Saint Clairsville, Ohio, led to Berke joining the Greater Pittsburgh Football Officials Association and becoming mentored by PIAA official Joe Kulik.
Berke initially officiated youth and junior varsity games across southwestern Pennsylvania before graduating to working WPIAL games.
After her fourth season as a WPIAL official, Berke said she began working NCAA Division II and III games before joining the Collegiate Officiating Consortium and working Missouri Valley Conference games for six seasons.
Berke officiated her first on-field Big Ten game in Wisconsin’s season opener this year against Buffalo at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, before spending the rest of this season working MAC games.
“Every time you move to the next level, things get just a little bit more intense,” she said. “There’s more expectations and you’re graded harder and the coaches are more intense because they have more riding on this, they’re paid more at this level. The whole thing, at every level, it just ratchets up a little bit.”
Berke currently is a Deep Wing official, working in the defensive backfield and making critical calls in the passing game. She said she leans heavily on her experience playing wide receiver and defensive back for the Passion as an official.
“Those are the biggest calls in the game,” she said. “You’re always going to be pissing off half the people, even if you’re right. It’s kind of going into it knowing that it’s a no-win situation. You really are just trying to do the best for your officiating team. There are three teams out there, and I’m part of the officials. We are just trying to do our best.”
Berke said she plans on someday soon moving on to officiating Big Ten games before moving to Sundays and the NFL. She added she has NFL experience working as a video review official for injuries at Acrisure Stadium for Steelers games for each of the past 12 years.
“I run the injury video review systems, so instant replay for the medical staff,” Berke said. “It’s really fun. It’s a great way to also keep networking.”
Becoming a full-fledged NFL official is the ultimate dream – and serving as a role model to young girls and women looking to follow in her footsteps is an added bonus, Berke said.
“I just hope it’s showing other little girls that they can do and be whatever they want to be,” she said. “If they’re passionate about something, just go do it. Follow your dreams. There’s nothing stopping you.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.