Ernest Barrett enters his fourth year as associate head coach for the Norfolk State track & field programs in the 2025-26 season.
During the 2024-25 season, Barrett helped lead the Spartans men’s squad to sweep the MEAC cross country, indoor, and outdoor championships. He also played a key role in guiding the women’s squad to a cross-country championship and runner-up finishes in both indoor and outdoor competitions.
Under Barrett’s guidance in 2024-25, the Spartans produced USTFCCCA All-America Indoor Second Team runner Kendrick Winfield, along with 11 individuals indoor MEAC champions and 10 individual outdoor champions. Additionally, six athletes qualified for the NCAA East Regional.
Barrett, widely regarded as one of the top coaches in the country, joined Norfolk State following four years at North Carolina A&T State University. At NCAT, he coached both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams and guided the distance and mid-distance runners for indoor and outdoor track programs.
Before NCAT, Barrett spent 18 years leading Maryland Eastern Shore’s men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs, and five years as head coach at Coppin State University.
Throughout his distinguished career, Barrett has coached 77 NCAA preliminary round qualifiers, 42 NCAA qualifiers and participants, 19 Olympic trial qualifiers, 10 NCAA All-Americans, four World Championships participants, four Olympians, one world record holder, and one indoor world champion.
He has also coached numerous IC4A, ECAC, and MEAC champions. Notably, his recent standout athlete was MDES’ Khalil Rmidi Kinni, who earned MEAC outdoor track MVP honors for three consecutive years (2014–16) and finished his career with nine MEAC MVP awards across cross country, indoor, and outdoor track.
Barrett’s tenure at MDES included winning four men’s and four women’s cross-country titles, plus three MEAC women’s track and field championships (two indoors and one outdoor). He was honored as MEAC Outstanding Coach of the Year 11 times.
At Coppin State, Barrett coached three All-Americans in the 800 meters (Diana Pitts in 1994, Twana Allen in 1996, Ian Roberts in 1997), three participants in the USA Track and Field Championships, two Olympic trials qualifiers, two World Indoor Track Championship participants, and one world record holder and World Champion Damion Johnson, part of the 4x400-meter relay team in 1999.
Barrett began his coaching career as an assistant at Coppin before becoming head coach. Prior to that, he led the track and field program at Falls Church High School in Virginia.
A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Barrett was an accomplished athlete himself. He qualified for the Olympic trials and earned All-American honors seven times in the 800 meters, 4x800 meter relay, and 4x400 meter relay. He was part of the 4x800 relay team that set a world record in 1989 with a time of 7:17.77.
Barrett holds a B.S. degree in community health education from George Mason University, earned in 1991, and is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. He and his wife have two daughters, Tasia and Kristen.
