Florida Tech’s Head Coach of Men's Cross Country and Indoor/Outdoor Track, Pete Mazzone, announced Berfrantz Charles as the track program’s Associate Head Coach on Wednesday, October 3, 2024.
In his first season leading the track program during the SSC inaugural season, Charles coached the SSC Freshman of the Year, Filippo Bessi, to the first SSC title in the 400-meter hurdles. Charles led the team to a fifth-place finish at the first-ever SSC Outdoor Track Championships, guiding Bessi in earning the top freshman at the meet.
Charles joins the Panthers after spending eight seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Virginia Union University in sprints and jumps for the men’s and women’s teams.
Several athletes earned great recognition at Virginia Union during the 2023-24 season. Charles coached six outdoor and two indoor track All-State Team members for the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID), including his 400-meter relay team and sprinter Jalen Hinton, who earned First Team honors.
Charles was crucial in leading three CIAA Track and Field Players of the Week and Hinton's MVP status at the CIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Two seasons prior, he coached Charles Hall to a silver medal in the long jump at the CIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He also coached Jordan Pebbles to a CIAA Field Athlete of the Week award for his triple jump victory at the Fred Hardy Invitational during the 2021-22 season.
Charles not only coached Hall to a silver medal, but Hall also earned NCAA All-Region during the 2019-20 campaign. Charles guided the men’s team to third place at the CIAA Track and Field Championships for the third straight season.
In his first season at Virginia Union, Charles trained the Atlantic Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, Ed’Treon Wilcox, and the CIAA Athlete of the Year in Running Events, Devin Simon. With the help of those two athletes and CIAA long jump champion Chaz McKenzie, Charles led the men’s squad to a third-place finish at both the Outdoor and Indoor CIAA Championships.
An Alum of Virginia Union, Charles competed on the Panthers track and field team from 2012-2015. In that span, Charles was a three-time CIAA champion long jumper and a five-time CIAA Field MVP. Charles qualified for the NCAA Division II Provisional eight times in four different events: three times in men’s 60-meter dash in indoor track, three times in men’s long jump indoors, and once during outdoor season. He also qualified in the men’s 400-meter relay in the 2014 outdoor track season, earning First Team All-American.
