Heading into his third season as head women’s golf coach at West Liberty, Eric Burkle has kept the Lady Hilltoppers among the elite programs in the West Virginia Conference.
Burkle took the reins for the 2010-11 season and hit the ground running, leading West Liberty to the West Virginia Conference championship.
Heavy graduation losses and injuries took their toll in 2011-12 but a strong recruiting class and a solid returning nucleus figure to have the Black and Gold back near the top of the WVIAC leaderboard at the end of the 2012-13 campaign.
Burkle was honored as the WVIAC Coach of the Year after taking the 2010-11 title in his debut season and senior Emily Taylor earned WVIAC Player of the Year laurels. Taylor is one of four All-WVIAC honorees coached by Burkle during his first two seasons at the Hilltopper helm.
A Wheeling native and a graduate of Wheeling Park High School, Burkle played college baseball at Fairmont State before returning to the valley to finish his degree at West Liberty.
He came to the hilltop in the fall of 2008 when he was hired as assistant baseball coach under long-time Hilltopper diamond mentor Bo McConnaughy.
Burkle replaced McConnaughy as head baseball coach following the 2011 season and will serve as head coach of both sports during the 2012-13 academic year.
Eric and his wife, Amy, live in Bethlehem. They have two daughters, Haley, a junior at West Liberty; and Sydney, a 6th-Grader at The Linsly School.
