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Norma Collett Bertoch – Brigham Young University, Retired

CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Ralph R. Zobell – BYU, Retired

Hold up two fingers, normally meaning “peace,” and it represents how many persons have served as women’s sports information director at Brigham Young University.
 
Norma Collett Bertoch succeeded the late Ellen Larsen as BYU’s inaugural women’s sports publicist for a “piece” of the action. Now it’s Norma’s turn to take an untimely bow, albeit without the fanfare she helped create for me when I retired in 2018 after a 41-year career as a Cougar sports publicist.
 
This fall, Norma filed for a disappointing and unexpected early retirement as she was one of four full-time publicists terminated this past fall - three days after BYU celebrated its first-ever football victory on then-No. 21 Boise State’s fabled blue “smurf turf." As the BYU Athletic Media Relations office underwent restructuring amidst the Covid-19 challenges, experienced athletic communications professionals also lost with Bertoch included Kyle Chilton, Jordan Christiansen, Kenny Cox and three part-timers.
 
After 37 years at BYU, Norma Bertoch, aka “Noni,” is retiring prematurely. She became BYU’s publicist for women’s sports in the summer of 1995 when Larsen retired.
 
The native of Chile came to the United States as a child (via Colorado and membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). She graduated in broadcasting from BYU in 1982 with a bachelor’s and a master’s in 1990, both in communications.
 
 
Never forgetting her roots, she visited hometowns of Santiago and La Serena, Chile every couple years after soccer and basketball seasons concluded at BYU.
 
Prior to her BYU service in athletic media relations, Norma interned in 1982 with United Press International during the Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina. UPI had a direct feed to Parliament and she cut up sound bites for the daily UPI audio feed to the radio affiliates. She was able to also send out sound bites from the reporters in Chile and Argentina on the Argentine perspective.
 
Bertoch was a reporter in 1983 for Ted Turner’s Cable News Network in Atlanta before returning to Provo, Utah to work in BYU’s University Communications Department and at KBYU-TV. She was assistant station manager over development, public information and community services for KBYU-TV for six years. She also was the broadcast media coordinator for five years in the university relations office.
 
When Larsen retired, Norma transferred to BYU’s sports information department. She made the seamless transition with aplomb.
 
“Norma was always happy and positive,” said Jeff Judkins, BYU’s women’s basketball coach since 2001. “I lost someone who has been with me at BYU my whole time. I took her for granted. It’s tough not seeing her around.
 
“She really had a lot of love for the players and knew a lot about each of us other than just basketball. She respected my time and was really dependable. She truly loved what she was doing for BYU.”
 
On a personal level, when I needed help with Spanish translation, I tapped Norma’s services. Her high-pitched squeal was fun to listen to during tense game situations. It was hilarious to see short Norma standing juxtaposed each of the three BYU 6-foot-7 basketball centers, sisters Jennifer and Sara Hamson and their mother, Tresa Spaulding Hamson.
 
“I teased her that in the fourth grade I was as tall as she was,” said Judkins. “When we were in our team gear at airports, she never got asked if she played for the team because of her height. Norma and I liked our own music that we grew up with in the 70’s. As we would travel in the vans with the team we would play ‘Name That Tune,’ and she was a killer.”
 
Bertoch publicized the Cougars through all 20 soccer berths and 10 basketball tournaments in NCAA Championship competition. The BYU women’s basketball team had Sweet 16 appearances in 2002 and 2014. The BYU women’s soccer team had 17 All-Americans and made it to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2003, in 2012 as the No. 1 seed and 2019.
 
Norma went with BYU’s women’s soccer team on off-season trips to France and England; she accompanied the Cougar golf team when it toured England, Scotland (including St. Andrews) and Sweden; and she traveled with BYU’s women’s basketball team to Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
 
A couple years ago I attended Norma’s wedding to her second husband, Scott. They have seven children and 10 grandchildren between them, with another on the way. She had the office next to mine before we played musical chairs as she moved into my office where her children Jessica and Andrew often found candy I had hidden for my kids. We alternated every other year or traveled together to attend CoSIDA Conventions.
 
Among the awards she received was CoSIDA’s 2008 “Best in the Nation-Women’s Soccer Media Guide-University Division.” Among her volunteer committee work, Norma was serving on the CoSIDA Scholarship and Grants Committee as of November 2020 and had served on the former CoSIDA Olympic and International Sports Committee and the Women’s Sports Publicity Committee.
 
She served on the KBYU-TV/FM Governance Board, was on the Advisory Board for Sunshine Heroes Foundation and was a board member for the Mali Rising Foundation where she was chair of the Annual Dinner/Auction Fund raising event. She met with the Mali President, the Education Minister and its Ambassador to further goals of the foundation to build schools in Mali’s rural villages.
 
Among her affiliations, Norma also was a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the BYU Cougar Club.
 
As Norma wrote a tribute to me upon my retirement, I thought it fitting to pay her back by writing one now for her. She will be missed.