Henry Rolle

Henry Rolle

PositionAssistant Head Coach
Henry Rolle
Henry Rolle

Henry Rolle is in his 19th season on The Plains and works with Auburn's women's sprinters and hurdlers, men's short sprints and hurdles.

During the 2016 indoor and outdoor seasons, Rolle coached four All-Americans. Teray Smith competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics for the Bahamas under Rolle in the 200m. Transfer Wellington Zaza earned All-America honors in the 110mH with a time of 13.75. Junior jumper, Marshay Ryan, earned first team All-America honors in the triple jump with an eight place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Ryan also earned second team honors with a 12.91m at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

2015 saw All-American selections from Teray Smith and Jonielle Smith. Teray Smith finish 6th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 200m with a personal best 30.34. Under Rolle’s tutelage, Jonielle Smith posted a strong freshman season, advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100m. Smith won gold in the 100m at the 2015 Border Clash with a time of 23.71.

In 2013, Rolle coached All-America sprinter Kai Selvon who finished sixth in the 200m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as well as World Championship gold medalist and former Auburn sprinter Keron Stewart. Stewart was a member of the Jamaican 4x100 meter relay team that ran the second fastest time in history (41.29). Stewart, who under Rolle's coaching, has posted 25 sub-11.00 times in the 100m dash, finished fifth at the World Championships. All told, five former Auburn athletes that Rolle coached competed at the World Championships in Moscow.

In 2012, Rolle coached a double medalist in the world junior games as well as an NCAA runner-up and nine Olympians all while serving as relays coordinator for his native Bahamas. Bahamian sprinter Anthonique Strachan placed first in both the 100 (11.20) and 200 meters (22.53) at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, while training with Rolle.

Selvon was runner up in the women's 200 meters at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championships and four athletes coached by Rolle were named All-Americans. Additionally, Selvon along with Kerron Stewart, Leevan Sands and Sheniqua Ferguson headlined a group of nine Rolle pupils to compete at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

With Rolle serving as relays coordinator in London, the Bahamas brought home its first-ever gold medal in the men's 4x400-meter relay with a national-record mark of 2:56.72. Stewart and Burns also won medals in the men's and women's 4x100-meter relay for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively, at the London Games.

2011 featured six women's sprinters qualifying for NCAA outdoor nationals and a total of three All-America selections. The season was highlighted by second-place finishes by the 4x400m relay team and by Joanna Atkins in the 400m. Joanna Atkins also earned an SEC outdoor title in the 400m.

During the 2010 NCAA season, Rolle's sprinters excelled as usual, led by Sheniqua Ferguson, who won the NCAA indoor title in the 200 meters, earned five All-American honors and was named the SEC Female Runner of the Year during the outdoor season after earning the Commissioner's Trophy as the high point scorer at the meet. Rolle also coached Joanna Atkins to four All-American honors, Nivea Smith to three and four others to one each in 2010.

Rolle's 2009 season was highlighted at the collegiate level with Joanna Atkins' national title in the 400 meters, while professionally, he coached Stewart, Marc Burns and Josanne Lucas to medals at the World Championships. Stewart won both a gold and silver medal, posting the fifth-fastest time in history in the 100m of 10.75 seconds, Burns earned a silver medal and Lucas a bronze.

Rolle coached four Olympic medalists at the 2008 Beijing Games, including Stewart, who took home a pair of medals. Stewart won a silver medal in the women's 100 meters and a bronze in the 200 meters, while Rolle also coached Burns to a silver medal in the men's 4x100-meter relay and Leevan Sands to a bronze in the men's triple jump.

The medals won at the Olympic Games gave Rolle a special achievement, as he has now coached athletes that have won every possible medal at every major international and regional competition. Following the 2008 year, Rolle was also honored by the Bahamas Athletic Association as the winner of the Charlie Major Coach of the Year for the second time in his career.

Under Rolle's guidance, Stewart emerged as one of the world's top sprinters after a stint at Auburn that included her winning the Honda Sports Award in 2007 as the nation's top female collegiate athlete.

The Olympic achievements came just two months after Rolle coached two Tigers to All-American honors at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Amelia Anderson was fifth in the 400m hurdles while Danielle Gilchrist placed sixth in the same race. Also during the 2008 outdoor season, Joanna Atkins set school freshman records in the 100m and 400m, and Cache Armbrister broke the school freshman record in the 200m.

In 2007, Stewart won indoor national titles in the 60m and 200m, and also won the 200m title outdoors, before earning a silver medal at the World Championships in the 4x100m relay. In addition, Rolle coached Tracy Ann Rowe to All-American honors in 2007 in the 100m, and Michelle Vaughn was an indoor and outdoor All-American in the triple jump.

In 2006, his athletes were instrumental in Auburn winning its first track and field national championship scoring 53 out of the team's 57 points. Six of his athletes combined for 11 All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, including individual national champions Markita James (400m hurdles) and Jovanee Jarrett (long jump).

During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Rolle not only served as an assistant coach for the Bahamas, but also coached 10 athletes during the track and field portion of the Games. The group included Trinidad & Tobago's Darrel Brown, Fana Ashby and Ato Modibo, Bahamian's Osbourne Moxey, Leevan Sands, Timicka Clarke and Dominic DeMerritt, Jamaican's Elva Goulbourne and Dean Griffiths, and Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands.

On December 27, 2002, just prior to his fifth season at Auburn, Rolle was honored by the Bahamas Association with the Henry Crawford Award for Coach of the Year.

Rolle has coached two NCAA record holders as Vonette Dixon won the 2000 NCAA Indoor 60m hurdles in a record time of 7.94 and Elva Goulbourne captured the indoor long jump title with a distance of 22-8. Goulbourne also won five NCAA titles, the 2003 Honda Award (Auburn's first), a Commonwealth gold medal and was named SEC and NCAA Athlete of the Year.

Rolle has coached 18 NCAA Champions and 92 All-Americans in his stint. In addition, Rolle has coached seven Commonwealth medalists, 18 CAC medalists and four NACAC medalists. One of his biggest achievements came in the summer of 2003 at the World Championships held in Paris as he coached Darrel Brown of Trinidad and Tobago to a silver medal in the 100m and a new world junior record of 10.01.

Rolle guided former Tigers Reuben McCoy and Ty Akins to medals at the 2005 Pan American Junior Championships, helping McCoy win gold in the 400m hurdles and Akins earn a silver in the 110m hurdles. He has also coached two athletes into the elite group of sub- 10 second 100m dash sprinters in 2005, aiding Marc Burns (9.96) and Darrel Brown (9.99).

Rolle helped Leevan Sands to bronze in the triple jump and former Auburn All-Americans Osbourne Moxey and Vonette Dixon to the finals in the long jump and 100m hurdles respectively at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France. He also coached Dominic Demeritte to gold in the 200m at the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and a bronze at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England.

Since joining the Auburn staff, many school records have been broken and additional All- Americans added to Auburn's long list of athletes coached or recruited by Rolle; including, former Auburn stand-out and 400m World Champion Avard Moncur, three Junior World medalists: Marc Burns (silver - 100m), Shamar Sands (bronze - 110m hurdles) and Lisa Miller (silver - 1600m relay), two Junior Pan-Am Champions prior to 2000: Shelly-Ann Gallimore, who won the triple jump, and Sanjay Ayre, who won the men's 400m dash. Both Gallimore and Ayre are native-Jamaican's and both earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors in 2000.

Rolle previously served as the head track coach at St. John's College in the Bahamas from 1995-1997. While at St. John's, Rolle led the program to a national championship in 1997. In just his first year at St. John's his squad improved 13 places at Nationals, jumping from 16th to third.

Rolle was also a successful club coach while in the Bahamas, as he coached seven Bahamian National teams, including at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 1997 Junior-Pan-Am team and the 1998 Caribbean and Central American team in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Following his stint at St. John's, Rolle returned to the States to serve as an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. While at Oral Roberts, Rolle was responsible for coaching the hurdles.

A native of Freeport, Bahamas, Rolle was a five-time Bahamian National team competitor, earning two silver medals in the high jump and 1600m relay at the Caribbean and Central America Games in 1988.

Personal Coaching Achievements

  • 10 World Championship Medalists
  • Six Olympic Medalists
  • One World Indoor Championship Medalist
  • World Junior Record Holder (100m-10.01)
  • Seven Commonwealth Medalists
  • Five Pan Am Medalists
  • Four Junior World Medalists
  • 11 Junior Pan Am Medalists
  • 18 CAC Medalists
  • 18 NCAA Champions
  • Two NCAA Records
  • Two NCAA Athletes of the Year
  • 97 All-Americans (First Team)
  • 40 SEC Champions
  • Honda Award Winners - Elva Goulbourne, Kerron Stewart
  • BAAA - Coach of the Year 2002, 2008
  • One Bahamas National High School Championship
  • 2004, 12, 16 Olympics - Assistant Coach - Bahamas
  • 28 Olympians