Darlene Holland is the head coach for TLU Men's/Women's Cross Country and Men's/Women's Indoor/Outdoor Track & Field.

 

Holland is in her 11th season as head coach of women's cross country and women's indoor/outdoor track and field and in her ninth season as head coach of men's cross county and men's indoor/outdoor track and field. (The TLU Men's Cross Country and Men's Indoor/Outdoor Track & Field teams began in 2014-15 at the university.) 

 

Holland first took the head coaching role for women's cross country and women's indoor/outdoor track and field at the start of the 2012-13 academic year. The men's cross country and men's indoor/outdoor track and field programs were started in 2014-15, and Holland was named the coach for those programs from their inceptions.

Holland's has been with the Bulldogs since the fall of 2006. She has been instrumental in helping the Bulldogs to two national relay titles (one in the 4x400 indoor and one in the 4x100 outdoor) and to a 2010 individual long jump national title in NCAA DIII women's track and field. The Bulldogs also have produced a national runner-up finish in men's outdoor shot put (Garrett Garza in 2019) and the men's 4x100 relay (2018).

Holland was hired in the fall of 2006, shortly after Patrick Zarate took over as the head coach at TLU. Together, Zarate and Holland coached the Bulldogs to three consecutive women's track and field team championships in the American Southwest Conference. The titles came in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

With Holland as head coach, the Bulldogs captured an ASC Women's Cross Country Co-Championship in 2012 and an ASC Women's Track & Field Championship in 2013. Since joining the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Women's Track and Field Team won the 2014 SCAC title, making it five consecutive women's track and field team championships overall (across two conferences).

 

Holland was named the 2019 South/Southeast Region Men's Track & Field Coach of the Year. She picked up her second South/Southeast Region Men's Track & Field Coach of the Year award. She previously received the honor in 2017.

In 2019, Holland guided the Bulldogs to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's team title for the third consecutive year, and she did so in just the fifth year of the program's re-start.

 

The Bulldogs sent seven men's entrees to the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Garrett Garza finished second in the NCAA DIII Men's Shot Put, and Darren Jones claimed his third career All-America honor with a top-eight finish in the 200 meters. 

 

In the 2019 Women's Cross Country season, Kylee Garcia earned All-Region and set a new 6K school record at the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Region Championships in Memphis, Tenn.

 

In the 2019 SCAC Women's Cross Country Championship, Garcia joined Ashley Rynard as the only SCAC All-Conference honorees in TLU's brief time in the SCAC.

 

In 2022, Holland would lead Texas Lutheran to its second consecutive SCAC Runner-Up finish with Texas Lutheran student-athletes Caimen McDonough and Julissa Rodriguez being recognized as Male and Female Athletes of the Meet at the 2022 SCAC Championships. Throwers Scottie Reyes and Zachary Herman would qualify for the NCAA Championships while Elijah Jefferson and Rodriguez would be named SCAC Male Track and Female Field Athletes of the Year. Rodriguez would also USTFCCCA All-Region honors as a freshman.