After seven years as an assistant coach, Holloway is now the head coach (Gatorzone.com) |
After seven years as the men\'s assistant coach at Florida, Mike Holloway was named the head coach over the summer and has already taken big strides in the right direction.
Holloway, 42, recently finished his seventh season as a member of the Gator coaching staff. His first four campaigns he was an assistant coach and the last three as an associate head coach. In his seven years, he has transformed the Gator sprint program to one of the nation’s elite. He has mentored four national championship athletes or relay teams to five NCAA titles and 18 athletes to 47 All-America Awards. In the past seven years Holloway’s athletes have accounted for 66 percent of Florida’s All-America certificates–including an award in every sprint event indoors and out except one–and over 80 percent of the team’s points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Holloway’s athletes hold 10 of UF’s 12 school records in indoor and outdoor events 400 meters and below.
At the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June, Rickey Harris won the NCAA Championship in the 400-meter hurdles in a time that ranked him third fastest in the world. Harris was also second in the 400m dash, becoming only the second male athlete in NCAA history to be an All-American in the 400-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash and the first since 1963.
In just the past four years alone, Holloway’s pupils set or have equaled the collegiate records in the indoor and outdoor 200 meters, have the second-best 100-meter American collegiate time ever and the fourth-best 4x100-meter relay clocking of all time which also stands as the fastest collegiate time ever run by four American citizens. Since 2000, UF sprinters have won NCAA titles in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 4x100-meter relay the indoor 400 meters and the 400-meter hurdles. They have also posted three top-three finishes in the outdoor 400 meters as well as a runner-up finish in the 100 meters and a third-place finish in the 200 meters at the NCAA Championships.
Holloway can also look forward to more fantastic newcomers to Florida this season and beyond. Sekou Clarke (Kingston, Jamiaca/Jamaica College HS), Dwight Ruff (Camden, N.J./Camden HS/Baylor University) and Colin Whyte (Jacksonville, Fla./Wolfson HS) joined the Florida program in the fall.
Clarke comes to Florida as one of the top junior athletes from Jamaica. He has a personal best of 46.65 in the 400m and is versatile enough to run events down to the 100m. Clarke has a lifetime best of 21.20 in the 200m dash and has been clocked at 10.4 in the 100m. He was third in the 2002 Jamaican Junior National Championships in the 400m, qualifying him for the World Junior Championships in his home country this month. By finishing fourth in the Jamaican Junior Championships in 2000, he was a member of the Jamaican National team, where he leadoff the 4x400m relay team to a gold medal at those World Championships.
A transfer from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Ruff will join the Gators as a 400m hurdle and a 400m threat. Ruff was an NCAA qualifier for Baylor in the hurdles last season with a personal best of 50.22, He was also a member of the Bears’ 4x400m relay team, helping them to a second place finish at the NCAA meet this year. The 2001 USATF Junior National Champion in the 400m hurdles, Ruff will team with current Gator and reigning NCAA hurdles champion Rickey Harris to make a formidable tandem in the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA.
Jacksonville native Whyte will make the short drive to Gainesville to continue his track and field career. With a top height of 14-6 in the vault, Whyte also has a personal best of 14.5 in the 110m hurdles. A prototypical athlete, he will compete in the decathlon at UF. Whyte competed at Wolfson High School and joins nearly 30 other Florida natives as Gators.
Dwight Thomas (Burtonsville, Md.), a transfer from Clemson University, has enrolled at the University of Florida and has joined the men’s track and field program. Thomas was an NCAA Indoor Qualifier in 2002 in the 60m, 60m hurdles and in the 200m. His personal records in those events are 6.62, 7.74 and 20.88, respectively. He was also an NCAA Outdoor Qualifier in the 100m, 200m and 110m hurdles with personal records of 10.14 in the 100, 20.40 in the 200 and 13.70 in the 110 hurdles.At the NCAA Championships last year, Thomas finished second in the 100m (10.29) and 200m (20.60). He was also a member of Jamaica’s 4x100 relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and was Pan American Junior Champion in 100m and 200m in 1999.
Due to transfer rules, Thomas must sit out one year before competing for the Gators.
The Florida men should rise again as one of the favorites in the SEC and NCAA meet for several years to come under Holloway\'s direction.
- Thanks to Gatorzone.com for some of the press release information for this article.