Sherrer returns to Florida to coach sprints and hurdles after a four-year stint with Ole Miss.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gators Track and Field has hired Holland Sherrer to coach sprints and hurdles, marking Sherrer’s return to Gainesville after he assisted the Gators during the men’s 2017 outdoor and 2018 indoor national championships. Sherrer brings with him an SEC pedigree as both a coach and athlete as well as a history of developing some of the top athletes in the sport’s recent history.
“We are very excited to welcome Holland Sherrer back to the Gator Track and Field family,” Head Coach Mike Holloway said. “Holland comes to us after some impressive seasons at the University of Mississippi. I am excited for Holland to work here again after he served us as a Volunteer Assistant a few years ago. He understands the standard that we fight to uphold in this program every day.”
Sherrer most recently spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Ole Miss, his alma mater, coaching sprints and hurdles. He worked closely with McKenzie Long, a 2024 Team USA Olympian, and guided her to three NCAA Championships in the 2024 outdoor season in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay in a season that made her a Bowerman semi-finalist.
Prior to Ole Miss, Sherrer was an assistant coach down the road at Mississippi State, where he was in charge of men’s and women’s sprints, hurdles and relays. At MSU, Sherrer coached SEC scorer and All-Freshman member Rosealee Cooper in the 60-meter hurdles, who topped out at 8.15 in 2021.
Prior to his stay in Starkville, Sherrer worked with the sprints and jumps groups at Syracuse for the 2019 season. There, his assisted Eunice Boateng, Dasia Pressley, Alexis Crosby and Cheyenne Trigg, who broke the school record in the 4×100-meter relay at the ACC Outdoor Championships (45.17) then did so again at the NCAA East Prelims (44.36).
Sherrer also helped with hurdlers who scored at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships. Matt Moore finished third in the indoor 60-meter hurdles (7.83), while Richard Floyd and Chevis Armstead II were third (14.07) and seventh (14.38), respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles outdoors. Floyd went on to run at the NCAA East Prelims where he missed advancing to the national championships by 0.07 seconds.
Sherrer helped the Orange sign a gifted class headlined by the No. 1 ranked sprinter from New Jersey in Dennisha Page, as well as Aja Davis, who was sixth in the 60-meter at the New Balance National Indoor meet.
Holland Sherrer completed his second season as a volunteer assistant coach for the Florida track and field staff in 2018. Sherrer primarily assisted with the development of the Gators’ mid-distance runners, as well as assisting head coach Mike Holloway with the development of the program’s long sprinters.
Sherrer made an immediate impact with the Gators in his first year on staff, helping half-miler Andres Arroyo qualify for the 2017 IAAF World Championships. With Sherrer’s help, Arroyo also won the 800 meters at SEC Indoor Championships, scored at NCAA Outdoor Championships (fifth place) for the first time in his career, and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships for a fourth straight season. Arroyo also became the No. 2-ranked half-miler on the program’s all-time outdoor top 10 with a personal record of 1:44.98 at the TrackTown Summer Series – New York.
In 2018, the half-mile duo of Kyren Hollis and Justin Pacifico both set personal records, with Hollis finishing fourth at the SEC Outdoor Championships with a PR of 1:48.20.
Hollis, who entered the 2018 season with a PR of 1:51.89 (and came to Florida with a PR of 1:52.25), went on to finish 13th at the NCAA East Preliminary, missing NCAA Outdoors by 0.29 seconds. Pacifico also qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary.
Sherrer is a 2016 graduate of Ole Miss with a bachelor’s in social work, where he was a three-year letterwinner and competed his final season under Connie Price-Smith in her first at the helm. In his time as a Rebel, he was a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier and three-time NCAA East Region qualifier, earning Second-Team All-American status outdoors in 2016 (12th place) and an Honorable Mention nod in 2015 (24th). His 800-meter PR of 1:47.34 earned him a trip to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, where he finished 27th in the nation. Sherrer was also a 2015 qualifier for the USATF Outdoor Championships.
He was a member of the 2015 SEC Champion distance medley relay team, the second of the still on-going streak of seven of the last eight DMR titles for the Ole Miss men. His indoor 800-meter PR of 1:50.15 from 2015 still ranks 14th all-time at Ole Miss, and his aforementioned outdoor best of 1:47.13 still sits fifth all-time. He was also a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll as a Rebel.
A native of Deerfield, New Jersey, began his collegiate career at Rend Lake Community College, where he was a two-time NJCAA All-American and won an NJCAA Championship on the 4×800-meter relay.
