The baseball field behind Hopkins Academy is named after Ronald Berestka. It was an easy sell for his longtime friend and successor Gus Peabody when Berestka retired in 2002 after a 35-year career as a physical education teacher, athletic director, soccer coach and baseball coach.
“He lived and bled Hopkins Academy,” Peabody said. “There was not even any question who the field was going to be named after.”
Berestka died Jan. 7 in Phoenix, Arizona, where he lived after retiring. He battled ALS for five years before passing away at 77.
Before leaving for Arizona, Berestka spent most of his life around Hopkins Academy. He played soccer, basketball and baseball at the school before heading to UMass to play soccer. He met Peabody there and began a lifelong friendship. Peabody played baseball for the Minutemen.
Berestka began working at Hopkins as soon as he graduated from UMass in 1964. He coached both his brother Ken and his son Butch. His coaching career culminated in the 1985 baseball state championship, Hopkins’ only team state title.
“His team was so fundamentally sound,” said Peabody, whose son Mark played shortstop for Berestka. “Crazy things can happen in a baseball game. I don’t care what happened in a game, it wasn’t because the kids weren’t prepared, it was because of the execution.”
Berestka would run a delayed steal where the baserunner took off as soon as the player threw the ball back to the pitcher. Peabody said the team called it around 15 times in the state championship season and he didn’t remember the runner ever being thrown out.
“I haven’t seen it before or since. It’s all based on timing,” Peabody said. “He had a tremendous baseball mind.”
Bishop Fenwick went ahead by five or six runs in the state final against Hopkins’ ace pitcher, Peabody said. Berestka pulled him, and the Golden Hawks came back to win 7-6.
“It wasn’t working out,” Peabody said. “He knew what he was doing.”
Berestka was inducted into the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1993.
“He was one of the top baseball minds in western Mass.,” Peabody said. “I don’t think a lot of the people knew what a tremendous baseball coach he was.”
David Keir’s impact in his last year as Smith Academy’s athletic director extended far beyond Hatfield.
He served on boards and committees within the PVIAC and MIAA, bettering athletic experiences across the state. Keir retired as Smith Academy’s athletic director after the 2017-18 season but was still named the District F athletic director of the year by the Massachusetts Secondary School Athletic Directors Association Executive Board.
“It was humbling to hear that my peers felt that way about me,” Keir said.
District F covers schools in Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties. Keir started as Smith Academy’s AD in 2011 and served as its golf coach for 29 years.
The award is given annually to an athletic director from each of the state’s eight districts that “displayed outstanding leadership and meritorious service in interscholastic
administration at the local, district, and state levels,” according to a press release from Hatfield Public Schools.
His selection was announced at the last PIVAC athletic director’s meeting of last year. He’s now in the running for the state athletic director of the year with the other seven district recipients. That award will be announced at the annual MSSADA conference in late March.
Keir was the chair of the golf committee and sat on the MIAA’s special blue ribbon task force to look at gender inequalities within the association. The task force was created in light of Lunenburg’s Emily Nash winning the 2017 Central Mass. Division 3 golf tournament but not receiving the trophy.
“We had to make sure the meetings going forward were looking at different things,” Keir said. “The winner is the winner not matter what your gender is.”
Keir also worked on the tournament management committee working to make sure everyone administers tiebreakers the same way and try to standardize the state’s seeding procedures, including advocating for power seeding across the state. Western Mass uses the Walker System for many of its sports, while the eastern part of the state still favors seeding directly by record.
Keir is currently serving as Smith Academy’s interim principal.