Mr. Burger, who may have been Cathedral Prep’s next great legend has taken a new job and will not be back at Prep. Primed to be the next Mr. Achille, Mrs. Mullen, Mr. Scharrer, Mrs. McKean, Mrs. Stosh, (and the list goes on and on), Mr. Burger is leaving us with today, Friday, Dec. 13, 2013, scheduled as his last day.
Hmm… Friday the 13th? Coincidence? We think not! This is going to be one of the worst days of our lives, ranking up there with when we found out that Santa Claus lived in the North Pole instead of the South Pole, or when we found out the Tooth Space Cowboy was actually a Tooth Fairy. On behalf of the students of Cathedral Prep, all we have to say to Mr. Burger is we will miss you.
Mr. Burger has been at Prep since halfway through our sophomore year (2011-12), taking over for the late and great Mrs. Mullen. The shoes he had to fill would be a daunting task for most, but not Mr. Burger.  He took on the task like a fancy bull in a China shop, calm and collective at first, taking his time to get into the swing of things and carefully examining everything. But as soon as he had a feel for how things worked, he saw red and exploded into becoming one of the student body’s favorite teachers. I’ve never met a teacher with more nicknames than Mr. Burger. Almost everyone—if not everyone—would tell you they like Mr. Burger. Sure, there are times when you might complain about him or his class, but what class has anyone not complained about?
Mr. Burger is leaving the private school system for the public school system in his hometown of West Middlesex, Pa., a small town in Mercer County. When asked about the move, Mr. Burger said he is definitely going to miss the intelligence level of the students at Prep.
At the beginning of his year, Mr. Burger really started to settle in. He had just finished his first full year of teaching, and the students began to feel comfortable with him. He even created a Quizup account, therealdburg, and he will “pwn” anyone in the Math:Hard category. This year he also became a wide receiver coach for the football team and, even though he’s changing schools, he will probably eventually continue coaching football there.
The biggest question we asked DBurgz (as he is affectionately known to many), is who will be replacing him? Female or male? Experienced or new to teaching? But Mr. Burger has no idea who will be taking his place. As far as who he will miss the most, Mr. Burger said he’ll miss his students, the seniors first of all, and secondly everyone else. He will miss the conversations in Calc class the most of all. He also added in typical Burger sarcasm that he won’t miss [Mr.] Hubert at all, including being called Mr. Hubert mistakenly or otherwise by those who called them “twins” and “lookalikes.”
Some parting words about Mr. Burger:
Jeremiah Ordos
I remember meeting DBurgz like it was yesterday. It was in the semifinals of the NHL ‘12 tournament. Jake (my younger twin brother) and myself were the New York Rangers, the eventual champions of the tournament, playing Mr. Burger and his teammate as the St. Louis Blues. It was a great game with a lot of talking between the two teams, but I think I really made the difference with getting in their heads, especially Mr. Burger’s, when I scored the go-ahead goal and got up on the table and did a celebratory dance. We eventually won the game in overtime fashion, and I haven’t let him live it down since. I’ve had many more memorable moments with DBurgz, which I could probably write a book about and win the Pulitzer Prize award for.
“The Juicy Burger” has many memorable quotes just like every teacher at Prep. In fact, there are simply too many to list on here. Maybe I’ll add them in my book about the memorable moments, or even write a series of memorable DBurgz things. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this yet, seriously?  People would read that for real.
Steve Bretz
The first time Mr. Burger and I ever crossed paths was the first day of school junior year. We didn’t say much to each other, but I could just tell that this guy was alright. As the year went on, me and DBurgz started to grow a good teacher-student relationship. Over the years, Burger has said some of the funniest things I have ever heard one human being say. There have been classes where my colleague and I, Jonathan Fitzmaurice, were on the ground laughing. The memories I have from his class will never be forgotten. Although Prep is going to try to replace him, they never will.
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We went around Prep asking students if they had any great memories from class with Mr. Burger. Here are the students’ responses when we asked them the question, “Do you have any memorable moments from class with DBurgz?”
Bryan Sienerth: He always makes fun of me.
Matt Wolf: Having to do the ultimate sit-up.
Carl Baumann: Last year in class we took a poll on “the classic stand or sit.”
Joe Marin: It was number 12 on the homework, and I got it wrong, so I wrote above it “stupid” with an arrow down towards the work. Not 30 seconds later we were going over it, and like 15 Indonesian priests came in to observe our class. And he goes, “Alright class, number………uh 12.” And all of the priests look in awe wondering what is written on the board means exactly, while at the same time taking pictures.
Julian Lombardi: When the sub broke his clock and bought him a new Steelers clock over break without him knowing.
Anthony Paollela: Jordan Vroman was crawling around in the back of the classroom for some unknown reason, going back and forth. Mr. Burger stood up and yelled at him for the first time.
Lucas Buseck: The description he gave about his reaction to the lights shutting off at the McDowell vs. Prep basketball game.
Greg Coppola: Every class is so fun, I can’t pick one day.
Zach Miller: My favorite memory was when Connor sincerely asked Mr. Burger how his break was, and Mr. Burger never answered. He still has yet to answer.
Mr. Burger’s final message to Prep students before he leaves is, “Me love you long time. Roll Ramblers. I will miss you all.”
Mr. Burger, we will miss you too.