Norfolk State University Athletics

Ronda Berard serves as director of track & field operations and throws coach for Norfolk State University. In all, Berard is in her 19th year on the coaching staff in the NSU athletics department.

Berard guided the Spartan women to three MEAC championships during her tenure as head coach. In 2009, Berard helped the Spartan women’s cross country team win its first-ever MEAC title. During track season, the Spartans won their first MEAC indoor title since 2000, and placed second at the conference outdoor championship. The Spartans won another MEAC title in 2011 when they captured the conference outdoor title.

Later that same season, one of Berard’s protégés, long jumper Champagne Bell, earned honorable mention All-America honors by advancing to the NCAA National Outdoor Track & Field Championship. Bell repeated that feat again in 2013. She was one of six Spartan women who qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round last year, the most for a Spartan team under Berard’s tutelage. In her first year as head coach, Berard directed the Spartans to runner-up finishes in the 2005 MEAC Cross Country Championship and in the 2006 MEAC Indoor Track & Field Championship. NSU has also finished as runner-up at three other MEAC cross country and track championships during Berard’s tenure.

Prior to taking over the reins of the program from long-time coach LaVerne Sweat in 2005-06, Berard served as an assistant coach for the Spartans for 10 seasons. Berard’s tenure as an assistant included two other MEAC championships, the 2000 indoor and 2001 outdoor titles. As an assistant, Berard helped coach two other Division I All-Americans: 400-meter world champion Debbie Dunn, who earned a pair of All-American honors in 2000, and long jumper Tianna Goldring (2004).

Berard came to NSU from Granby High School, where she was the assistant track coach in 1994-95.

Berard earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 1990 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette). She was a scholarship track athlete at USL, and also played on the women’s basketball team. Berard was a two-time Sun Belt Conference champion in the discus throw, and at one time held the school’s shot put and discus records.

Berard earned her master’s degree in special education/severe disabilities rehabilitation counseling from NSU in 1997. She is also a 2008 graduate of the NCAA Women Coaches Academy.

Berard, a Louisiana native, is a Diamond Lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and is an active member of the organization’s Chesapeake/Virginia Beach Alumnae Chapter. She is married to Patrick Berard Sr. They have two children: Patrick Jr. and Aronji.