Jeff Burner and John Galle, back in the day.
Outside of Alan Knight, I am not sure if there is a high school coach that I spent more time with than Jeff Burner. There were a number of reasons why we were in the same gym and later at the same Dennys restaurant in Mount Jackson.
First, the Northern Virginia Daily was located in Strasburg, 30 miles one way from Quicksburg. Mike Petre and later Chuck McGill would always cover the Generals in every sport, but the actual staff could be put to use closer to the newspaper.
Secondly, if you looked up the word personable in the dictionary, you could see a picture of Coach. From Day one, Burner treated you like you mattered, and his athletes would run through a wall for him, Shoot, his beat writer would as well. The only drawback to the system would be that the stringer would cover the team during the entire regular season but a staffer would take the baton for the post-season games.
Burner coached like his life depended on it, and outside of a few exceptions, he did so with much height on his roster. His teams back then were scrappy and looked to create havic, just like the guy in the insurance commercials you see on television today. The style was an acquired taste but not always easy on the eyes or easy to follow.
The exception to the rule was his four years coaching one, Kallie Hovater ! Kallie was an absolute beast on the basketball court, from start to finish.
The Mayor of Quicksburg was something I tagged on Jeff early in our relationship. See. 178 is the total population still today in 2026, and Burner has coached for 36 years now. Some of the things he would do is support his players year around, not just during basketball season. This carries over to long after graduation from SJHS as he knows who they married, the names of their children, and if they have a pet or not.
When the school was looking for some fresh things to teach its students, it turned to Burner, and he proceeded to create some new curriculum. Years later, I was able to pitch in with one of those classes.
Jeff is married now to Amy, and their two kiddos are enjoying their time at the school. It has been from a distance, but watching the progression has been a treat.
While we all claim Kenny Brooks, the current Kentucky Women’s Basketball coach, Burner is the one who actually attended classes with the former James Madison University and Virginia Tech coach.
Mom and Dad were always a great conversation, and his brother was as well. Everything and everyone that came into contact with the mayor was better for it !
This photo was taken right after we completed the Carroll County High School book on Basketball. Lin had just delivered his copy to him as what Basketball junkie wouldn’t enjoy a great read?
The similarities between Hovatter and Alyssa Ervin are numerous. Driven individual who played the game the right way are the all-time scoring leader at their high school, Boys or Girls. Both even spent time at Elon University along the way. If not for Chad Coffee and Buffalo Gap…..
But this is supposed to be a book about softball and baseball, right ?
Burner filled in at the school in other sports, and one of them was softball. While he admitted to not getting the best of Alan Knight very often, he did have one fond memory from the diamond.
” Basically, as we came off the bus, a lady was there with a cake in the shape of a 200. She said it was to celebrate Coach Knight’s 200th win. In truth, I don’t know if he had already gotten it before or later, but our girls took it personally. We ended up winning somehow, and our girls cheer was “Put the cake in the Freezer!”
The story came full circle a few years ago when we selected Jeff Burner as our initial Person of the Year for OneofUs.Care. It was one of the easiest decisions that I would make.
