John Berry had a lot to prove on the football field and in the classroom when he left Washington, D.C. for Williams College. He was determined to prove that he could be an effective and winning quarterback and he wanted to graduate from Williams and gain admission to medical school.
Berry recently confided that he had "carried a lot of hate to college." "I was blessed to have Dick Farley as my football coach," he said.
"When I went to Williams I wanted to prove that I was a winner at QB," Berry recalled. "Coach Farley taught me that being a winner was more than just playing a position. It was about honoring the game by maximizing my potential."
Berry never did play QB for the Ephs, but he did become a standout cornerback, that is until he hurt his knee early in his junior year. Surgery allowed him to reclaim the year as a medical red shirt. Spending the spring semester back in D.C. recovering from surgery, Berry interned in the Forensics Unit of the FBI, and he was not entirely sure he would return to Williams. In the end he knew he had some unfinished business to take care of.
Berry intercepted a pass in his first game back in 1998 and saw daylight, and all he could hear was Coach Farley screaming "Go Down! Go Down!" There was no stopping Berry and he scored untouched even though Farley was afraid Berry would get injured on the return.
On the last play of the 1998 season Berry leaped in the air to bat down Amherst's last gasp pass attempt, ensuring a perfect 8-0 season for the Ephs, and then he crumpled to the turf. "To complete the perfect season in 1998 filled me with so much joy," said Berry. "I started crying on the field. Little did I know that that was my last play as a football player."
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A little over a week after the historic win over Amherst, DeAngelo Berry, John's older brother, collapsed due to complications with his kidneys. The problems with DeAngelo's kidneys continued to worsen and his only hope for survival became a donor kidney. The perfect match was John Berry.
"When I discovered DeAngelo's predicament, the choice was simple," said Berry. "In fact, my life in football prepared me for it."
Heading into what was his senior season at Williams, a year in which he could not play due to having only one kidney, Berry's impact on his teammates shined through as they had already elected him captain for a second straight year.
Dick Farley handed him a clipboard and made him an assistant coach and had him helping out with the secondary. During the 1999 season Fox Sports came to campus to profile Berry, and the NCAA honored him in January 2000 at their Annual Convention with the NCAA Award of Valor.
Berry got an eyeful of what coaching was all about under Farley and he decided to put his medical school plans on hold, at least for a while to pursue college coaching. "I was not totally shocked when he told me that he wanted to go into coaching," said Farley. "I did question whether it was a wise investment considering what he had paid a lot of money for a top-notch liberal arts education, but I knew John Berry would positively affect a lot of people, whether in coaching or medicine."
"With my playing career over, I wondered if I could engender in others what had been engendered in me by Coach Farley, a sense of belonging, of commitment, of family, of love," said Berry. "I reflected on what my life was like growing up in D.C. I knew that there were other kids out there, who may have felt lost or confused as they left high school like I did. When I graduated high school, so many things were falling apart. Football was the thread that held me together, but without proper mentoring, I would have fallen apart. Again, I was blessed to have Coach Farley in my life at that time. In some naïve way, I wanted to return the favor to others."
From Williams Berry headed to Fordham where he worked under Williams alum Dave Clawson and coached the Rams' corners in 2000 & 2001 and in 2002 he was elevated to Co-Defensive Coordinator.
Fordham won the Patriot League title in 2002 and advanced to the 1-AA quarterfinals and John Berry was enjoying coaching. "Coaching allowed me to stay attached to the sport that had given me so much," said Berry. "I chose to do it to give something back to other student-athletes and their families. I thought my experiences would resonate with other young men and their families. I valued the responsibility of mentoring those young men. I continue to enjoy a close connection with the families of the young men that I recruited."
As successful as the Rams were on the football field and as much as Berry enjoyed recruiting young men to attend Fordham to play football, something was missing.
"I felt unfulfilled," noted Berry. "I began to re-consider the option of becoming a doctor. I had a moment of clarity on February 23, 2003. I realized that I was the architect of my life, and that regardless of how my choices were formed by my circumstances, in the end my life's direction was my choice. This allowed me to choose medicine… for me! I know, I know, anyone probably could have enlightened me to this point if I had just asked. But that is the point, isn't it? I needed to discover it for myself. "
Good-bye football, hello Harvard Medical School. Berry is a fifth year student there and is taking this year off to do research in brain malformations.
Those who knew John Berry (aka "JB") while he was at Williams will not be terribly surprised to find out that he and classmate Imelda Ramirez have married and they are now the parents of a six-month-old daughter Xavia Adeliz Berry-Candelario. John and Imelda changed their surnames upon marrying, adding Imelda's mother's maiden name to John's last name.
John and Imelda and Xavia currently reside in New Haven, Conn., where John is working at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center in the Department of Neurosurgery researching cortical (brain) malformations, specifically intracranial aneurysms, before returning to Harvard Medical School in the summer of 2008. Imelda, formerly a clinical social worker, is applying to medical school for admission in 2008.
It's all about honoring the game, on and off the field, and your life in the Berry-Candelario household.
