Berkeley/McCluer South Berkeley Track
and Field
Just as Dixon built a dynasty at West Plains High School, Rod Staggs did the same with the boys and girls track and field program at Ferguson-Florissant School District's Berkeley High School in North St. Louis County. The coaches and athletes that followed Staggs have kept the tradition going. The Bulldogs men and women have totaled 28 state titles between 1982 and 2017. Berkeley which last decade became known as McCluer South-Berkeley High School, has captured boys and girls state titles in the same years six times.
Berkeley has racked up 106 relay state titles. The boys have won 16 state titles, coming in 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2015. The girls captured state titles in 1982, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016, and 2017. The Lady Bulldogs have produced 94 individual state champions, 47 of the 106 state relay titles.
Keith Rhodes took over the girls head coaching duties in 2004 when Staggs left for Lindenwood University while Rod Marshall took over the boys head coaching reins. Rhodes moved on to athletic director duties and and Tara Dash was the girls head coach for two years, followed by current girls head coach Martise Scott. Tommie Dabney has guided the boys program as head coach since 2009. The Bulldogs have had some great coaching staffs over the years that included coaches Calvin Usery, Wasim Walker, Ronald King, Perry Williams, Todd Shelton, and Rodney Dotson to name just a few.
The state titles came in Class 3A through 1996, then they moved to 2A in 1997, which was renamed simply Class 2 in 2003. McCluer South-Berkeley moved back up to Class 3 in 2005 and have remained there since.
The state meet results and top All-Time state meet performance list is litered with Berkeley athletes and relays. The 2014 girls 47.19 is the 4x100-relay meet record. So is the 2007 girls 4x400 crew's mark of 3:45.78.
Berkeley has produced many great athletes, including the most decorated one in state history, Alishea Usery. A 2008 graduate, Usery was a sprint superstar and high school All-American. She captured 16 individual and relay state titles. That's a perfect 16 for 16 at the state meet, 4 gold medals each year for four years. She never lost a state race final. She captured the 100, 200, and 400-meter dash state titles each of her four years, as well as the 4x400-meter relay four times. User's was on the 4x400 squad that ran state meet record 3:45.78, which is more than 2-seconds faster than the second fastest.
Usery and her twin sister Ashley went on to run at the University of Florida. Usery earned All-American honors but her college career was slowed with injury. Usery made at least one USA team, representing USA Track and field at the Pan-American Junior Games. Usery finished with state meet personal bests of 11.69 in the 100, 23.78 in the 200, and 53.55 in the 400-meters, the last of which still stands as the All-Class State Meet Record.
Another one of the Berkeley superstars was Michael Rodgers. Rodgers the brother of Usery, was a sprint star himself for the Bulldogs from 2000-2003. Like his sister would do after him four times, Rodgers captured the sprint triple with 100, 200, and 400-meter dash state titles as a senior in Class 2 in 2003. Rodgers followed Staggs to Lindenwood where he won multiple NAIA National titles and helped the Lions to two national team championships.
Rodgers finished up his college career at Oklahoma Baptist, then made the most of his opportunity to train with sprint coach Daryl Woodson in Texas after college. Rodgers became one of the top 60 and 100-meter sprinters in the world and his 9.85 100-meter dash personal record is the fifth fastest ever for an American. Rodgers and his 2015 World Relay Championships 4x100 squad share the American record with a 2012 US team with a 37.38 clocking.
Rodgers owns a World Indoor 60-meter dash silver medal and two World Outdoor Championship silver medals in the 4x100. Rodgers made the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams and competed in Rio in 2016 as the US men finished third in the 4x100 before being disqualified. Rodgers has placed 5th and 6th in the 100-meter dash at the World Outdoor Championships and won two USA 100-meter dash titles.
Lavar Miller was a jumping superstar for Berkeley. The 1996 graduate won eight Class 2 state titles in the long jump, triple jump, and high jump. His high school best was over 7-feet and he went on to earn NCAA Division I All-American honors at the University of Arkansas. He finished with a personal best of 7-4.25. Kianna Ruff ran the current 8th-fastest state meet 400-meter dash time with a 54.98 in 2009, a year after running the 6th-fastest 800-meter state meet time of 2:09.89. Ruff went on to 4x400-relay All-American honors and 800-meter success at the University of Tennessee.
Berkeley's Dan Futrell was the 4A 800-meter state champion in the 1975 with a 1:54.1 clocking. Futrell went on to become an NCAA Division II National Champion at Truman State (Northeast Missouri State University) with Division II Top-10 All-time mark of 1:46.81. Futrell was inducted into the NCAA Division II Men's Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1997.
Sadly, the Hall of Fame honor for the program comes just weeks before the final season for the McCluer South-Berkeley program. In the fall, the Ferguson Florissant School District decided to close the high school next year and consolidate the three high schools in the district into two. McCluer High School and McCluer North High School will remain open.