Berk Brown, a Southern Oregon University alum, begins his third season as the Raiders' head football coach in 2025 after beginning his tenure with back-to-back winning seasons.
He was voted the AFCA-NAIA Region 5 co-Coach of the Year in 2024 on the strength of an 8-3 campaign in which the Raiders peaked at No. 7 in the NAIA Top 25, finished at No. 24, and produced the Frontier Conference Offensive Player of the Year in sophomore running back Gunner Yates. Brown guided them to a 5-3 Frontier mark, ranking fifth nationally in sacks per game, 10th in points and 11th in takeaways. They also garnered NAIA Scholar Team recognition.
Brown's Raiders went 6-4 overall in 2023 -- giving them their first winning season in five years -- and posted a 5-3 Frontier record to finish in a tie for fourth place after being picked seventh in the preseason coaches' poll. They won five of their last six games, and the culmination of the stretch was a 31-16 upset of No. 5-ranked and eventual NAIA semifinalist College of Idaho in the season finale.
Brown made a clear imprint at SOU even before returning as the 17th head coach in team history, coming on as a player for a one-win team in 2005 and departing as a national champion defensive coordinator 11 years later.
Brown was the defensive coordinator for SOU's 2014 team that captured the NAIA title. He left, months after the Raiders made their second consecutive appearance in the national championship game a year later, to accept a job as the assistant athletic director at St. Mary's School in Medford. He's been a teacher and football coach at Crater High School since 2017, having helped the Comets to an appearance in the Class 5A championship game as the defensive coordinator. He became Crater's head coach in 2020.
The Turlock, Calif., product transferred from Modesto Junior College (Calif.) to SOU as a defensive lineman and played in 17 games in 2005 and '06. Following his playing days, he stayed on as an assistant to Steve Helminiak while completing a bachelor's degree in health and physical education – coaching tight ends, the defensive line and special teams before becoming the defensive coordinator in 2010. When Craig Howard took over as head coach in 2011, for a team that had posted one winning record in its previous seven seasons, Brown was one of two coaches he retained.
Brown was Howard's special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for two years, then got another shot at the defensive coordinator job in 2013. In his second season, his unit came up with eight takeaways in a stunning 55-31 rout of Marian (Ind.) that capped the team's first and only national championship run. His defense was also at its best during the 2015 postseason, when the Raiders limited Kansas Wesleyan to eight points in the first round, No. 2-ranked Baker (Kan.) to 19 in the quarterfinals, and No. 1 Morningside (Iowa) to a season-low 27 in a semifinal road win.
Brown completed SOU's Master of Arts in Teaching program in 2020. He and his wife, Bethany, have been married since 2008 and reside in Medford with their daughter, Emarie, and son, Ellis.