Bernie Busken has retired as head football coach at North high school. Busken sent www.sports360az.com a text message of his decision early Monday morning. Busken is best known in Valley high school football for being the head coach at Mesa Mountain View high school where he led the Toros to three big-schools state championships, 40 consecutive wins and an 82-9 record from 1995-2001. Busken left Mountain View in the spring of 2002 after the practice, known as giving “pink bellies″ landed him in hot water and eventually being ousted as the head coach. Busken told Sports360az on Monday that the practice of pink bellies was in place well before he arrived and that “the kids were proud of it, but you had a couple of kids that weren’t into it.”
His other Valley coaching stints included Basha and North.
He had 11 former players invited to pro camps and six who made it to the NFL. “I’ve given so much, I’m not closing the door on coaching, but both of my daughters live northeast of Houston, eight miles apart, now is a good time to be close to them.”
