Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky Roberto Bergersen Joins Eastern as Assistant Coach

The Bob Bender-era guard left the UW to become a Boise State standout.
Dan Raley|
Ex-Husky Roberto Bergersen Joins Eastern as Assistant Coach
Ex-Husky Roberto Bergersen Joins Eastern as Assistant Coach

Roberto Bergersen, a former University of Washington shooting guard during the Bob Bender era, has been named as an assistant coach at Eastern Washington for David Riley's new staff.

The 6-foot-6 Bergersen remains an ever perplexing Husky basketball story. A touted player from Federal Way's Decatur High School, he started half a season as a UW freshman, encountered grade trouble and transferred to Boise State, where he became the 1999 Big West Player of the Year and was inducted into the Broncos' athletic hall of fame. 

Bergersen, 45, comes to Eastern a month after his son Rylan, a 6-foot-6 senior guard, joined the program from Central Arkansas, where he was an All-Southland Conference selection and averaged 16.9 points per game. Rylan previously played at BYU.

Though always a basketball presence, Bergersen was named for MLB hall of famer Roberto Clemente because the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder was his father's favorite baseball player. His dad was quite a basketball player, too.

The 6-foot-7 Jack Bergersen was a post presence and a Seattle high school basketball legend at Roosevelt who spent two seasons as a starter for Marv Harshman's Washington State Cougars. He died in early 2020 and is eulogized in the accompanying video. 

So now Roberto Bergersen will relocate his family from Boise, Idaho to Cheney, Washington.

Bergersen, who has three basketball-minded sons, spent the last decade coaching the Hoop Dreams AAU program in Boise, as well as a year-round youth sports academy. He has much to share with the Eastern players, who are coming off an NCAA tournament appearance.

When he was at the UW in 1994-95, Bergersen was inserted in the starting lineup for the first game of his college career because of injuries — against Eastern, in a season-opening 64-48 Husky victory.

He'll answer to Riley, 32, who was an assistant for Shantay Legans, who left Eastern for the University of Portland following the NCAAs. Riley is the nephew of Mike Riley, the former Oregon State, Nebraska, San Diego Chargers and CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers football coach.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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