Julie Berry could sympathize with Bob Crowley as the South Portland resident and Gorham High School physics teacher went through the trials and tribulations that is “Survivor.”

Berry, a 1998 Gorham High School graduate who had Crowley as a physics teacher, made it to the top five in season 9 of the show, which filmed in Vanuatu in 2004. She is now living and working in Los Angeles where she interning as a marriage and family counselor.

“It’s difficult to explain,” Berry said Friday from her home in Los Angeles. “I get excited now when I see people do it because I know how touching and real it is.”

Crowley beat out 17 other contestants while battling the elements on the 17th season, which taped last summer in Gabon, Africa. CBS announced his win on Dec. 14, live in Los Angeles, making Crowley, 57, the oldest person to win the show.

“This is amazing, and walking on the moon probably doesn’t feel better than this,” Crowley said two hours after winning the show while sitting in Los Angeles International Airport.

Crowley began the game slowly, not building alliances but keeping himself alive each week by building fires for his team, making shelters and catching fish to eat.

That, Berry said, was probably his saving grace before he went on a five-challenge win streak to end the show and propel himself into the final three.

“I was surprised, probably until he started winning immunity and started emerging as a dark horse,” Berry said. “At first he was struggling with the social aspect, but he began fitting in with people at the right time.”

Berry said Crowley’s experience was similar to her own as she, too, didn’t play the mind games as well as the other contestants.

“I related to him in the early aspect of the game and we both seemed to be more diplomatic than problematic,” she said. “I couldn’t tell if he wasn’t socially getting it, but physically he was dominating the game.”

During the 17 installments of “Survivor,” only 200 people throughout the world have been chosen to compete. Berry and Crowley beat the odds, both having Cumberland County ties.

“It’s extremely odd and those are small odds,” Berry said. “They seem to have at least five people from L.A. every season, and I always think more people from Maine should apply. Look how unique Mr. Crowley is, and I think he showed that more small-town people should apply because that’s what the show looks for.”

Berry said that she knew from her high school experience that Crowley was smart, but it wasn’t until the show started airing that she truly understood how smart he really is.

“I learned a lot even reading his blurb on CBS,” she said. “Everything that he created and accomplished was mind-boggling. I didn’t know he had all that ability and that’s remarkable.

“I bet he ran the show in terms of creativity for survival skills,” she added, “but he was able to do it in a way that was apparently nonthreatening to the other cast members.”

Watching Crowley represent Maine was a nice little slice of home, Berry said, adding that she enjoyed every episode and became one of Crowley’s biggest fans.

“I think you have a connection not just because I had him as a teacher, but because when he talks you get where he is really coming from,” she said.

“I was watching an online interview with him and he said, ‘I’m not intelligent, but I’m wicked smaht.’ I just lost it and it brought me home for a moment.”