Full-Court Family
Joe Sermo coaches his twin sons at Berkley High
By Steve Stein
Playing and coaching basketball has long been a family affair for Joe Sermo. And now the story is about to include a new generation. Sermo is heading into his ninth season as the boys basketball coach at Berkley High School.
When the Berkley season tips off this winter, Joe’s twin sons Drew and Sam, both sophomores, will most likely be on their father’s team, which finished 15-7 a year ago.
Joe was on the other end of a coach-player family equation several years ago, when he was a student at Our Lady of La Salette School in Berkley. His father, Mike Sermo, was the basketball coach at La Salette for 21 years, from 1978-99. Joe was on his father’s team from fifth through eighth grade.
Their paths crossed again a few years later on the court, this time as coaches. Mike, who died in 2020 at age 74, was an assistant coach for the Berkley boys basketball team from 2000-2014.
Joe played basketball at Berkley before graduating in 1997. He was the junior varsity boys basketball coach at his alma mater starting in 2010 and he became the varsity boys basketball coach in 2016. He’s 92-63 in his eight seasons as the Berkley varsity coach.
Joe said he’ll use the lessons he learned from his own father-son coach-player dynamic when his sons take the court for him this season. “I won’t treat my sons differently than anybody else on the team,” he said. “I have some excellent assistant coaches. I know they’ll step in behind the scenes and make sure all is good with the team if needed. We’ve already talked about that.”
Drew is a 5-foot-9 point guard. His dad said he plays with energy, pushes the ball up the court and is unselfish. In other words, he’s a prototypical point guard. Sam is a 5-foot-11 shooting guard. He and his twin brother could end up in the same backcourt for the Bears.
“I’m excited about playing for my dad and helping the team,” Drew said. “My main role as a point guard is to set up my teammates to score. I’m not much of a scorer, but I will take a shot if it’s the best one available.”
Sam said he’s been looking forward to playing for his father for a long time. When that happens, he said, he hopes his father is tougher on him than the other players on the team. “I play better when I’m pushed hard by my coach,” he said.
Sam also is looking forward to joining forces with his brother on the court because of their familial connection. “We’re twins!” he said.
Drew said he hopes the Berkley basketball talk will continue when the Sermos leave the Bears’ gym and return to their home in Huntington Woods. “I want to talk about how we played in a game, and the plays that worked and didn’t work,” he said.
Drew and Sam each played on the Berkley junior varsity boys basketball team last season and did well in the classroom during their freshman year of high school. Each finished the school year with a 3.95 grade-point average. Neither Drew nor Sam said he competes with his brother to see who has the higher GPA. Instead, they want each other to do well academically.
The twins are 15. They were born at 6:16 p.m. and 6:26 p.m., June 6, 2009, with Drew making his arrival first. Their mother is Meghan, a freshman biology teacher at Troy High School. Their father is a physical education teacher at Royal Oak Shrine High School.
Baseball is another big sport in the Sermo family. The twins played this summer on the U14 Canes travel baseball team out of Wixom that competed at the University of Notre Dame, University of Toledo, Western Michigan University, and in Florida, among other places.
The Canes finished 28-13, won 18 straight games in one stretch, and were ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 21 in the country among U14 travel baseball teams at the end of the summer.
On the diamond, Sam is mainly a catcher. Drew is mainly a shortstop. “I don’t think either one has a favorite sport between basketball and baseball,” Joe said. “They’re old school athletes. Each one loves the sport he’s playing.”
Sam played on the Berkley varsity baseball team last spring. Drew played on the Bears’ JV baseball team. Berkley varsity baseball coach Matt Rawlik, now the school’s athletic director, said Sam played in about 85% of the Bears’ games.
Sam caught and was a designated hitter and first baseman. He struggled at the plate, hitting .196, but his defense and baseball smarts earned him playing time. He threw out 13 runners on the bases. “Our catcher calls the pitches,” Rawlik said. “I trusted Sam to do that, and he did a great job.”
Berkley finished 14-6 in the Oakland Activities Association Blue Division, good for third place behind Troy (20-1) and Troy Athens (19-3).
Captions:
The Sermo Family gathers in front of the Word of Life mural (better known as “Touchdown Jesus”) at the University of Notre Dame this summer during a baseball tournament. From left are Joe, Sam, Meghan and Drew Sermo. Sam Sermo is the taller of the Sermo twins. He’s 5-foot-11. His brother Drew is 5-9. Drew Sermo is the oldest of the Sermo twins. He was born 10 minutes before his brother Sam.