Davenport University Athletics

Ronda Varnesdeel is in her 16th year at Davenport, five of which were at the helm of the softball program. As part of the athletics leadership team, Varnesdeel has department-wide administrative responsibilities, which includes serving as a sport supervisor for multiple men’s and women’s programs. In addition, she will provide leadership with goal-setting, performance management, human resource activities within the department, and budget management. Varnesdeel also serves on numerous committees within the university and serves as a liaison for the athletic department between many departments within DU. In addition, she serves as a Deputy Title IX coordinator and adjunct faculty for the university. During her tenure at DU, Varnesdeel also served as the Assistant Director of Athletics and an Academic Advisor.

Varnesdeel has worked in higher education since 2001, where she started as an Assistant Softball Coach at Aquinas College. Varnesdeel was appointed head coach of the Aquinas Softball program in 2002. She led them to four WHAC Championships in 2003 and 2005-2007. She was named WHAC Coach of the Year in each of those years as well as Region VIII Coach of the Year in 2005, a year in which she led her team to the NAIA National Championship.

As head softball coach at Davenport University, Varnesdeel led the team to Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference regular season championships in 2010 and 2011 while guiding DU to a pair of NAIA National Championship appearances in 2011 and 2013, including the program's first-ever national tournament win in 2013. In her five years of coaching at DU, Varnesdeel had two second-team All-Americans, one All-American honorable mention selection, two WHAC Players of the Year, two WHAC Pitchers of the Year, 18 All-Conference Selections, seven all-conference honorable mention selections, 17 NAIA Scholar-Athletes, and was honored as a NAIA Scholar-Team with a cumulative team GPA of 3.3 in 2010.

The former Ronda Bolitho was also a standout athlete for the Saints in which she was a four-year starter for the basketball and softball programs. She led the Saints to a national tournament appearance in both sports. Varnesdeel also earned all-conference and all-region selections during her softball career. She was inducted into the Aquinas College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023. Prior to attending Aquinas College, Varnesdeel prepped at Wyoming Park High school where she was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2009.

Varnesdeel received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Aquinas College and then her master's degree in Business Administration from Columbia Southern University. She resides in Grand Rapids, Mich. with her husband Bernard Jr. and their son Bernie, who is a member of the men's basketball team at DU.