Coach Rowland

Jenny Rowland, one of the nation’s rising coaching talents, is in her third season as University of Florida’s head gymnastics coach. Rowland is the seventh head coach for the Gator program, which is in its 46^th season in 2018.She shared the 2016 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year honor with Arkansas’ Mark Cook. Among the current Gator staff, she joins football’s Jim McElwain (2015) and volleyball’s Mary Wise (1991) as those who claimed SEC Coach of the Year honors in their first season at UF. 

Rowland brings experiences from the sport’s highest level to Florida. She is a former U.S. National Team member, a collegiate All-American and named a 2015 National Collegiate Assistant of the Year. Rowland is a Category 3 International Brevet level judge. She served on the judging panel for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Rowland’s Coaching Career at UF:

Florida reached the NCAA Super Six team final in each of Rowland’s first two seasons with the Gators, taking fourth in 2016 and third in 2017. Rowland was named the 2016 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after the Gators won that season’s team title. 

Gators won NCAA individual event titles in each of the last two season. Bridget Sloan won the 2016 NCAA all-around and shared that season’s uneven bars and balance beam titles. Alex McMurtry is the reigning NCAA all-around champion and shared that season’s uneven bars crown. The Honda Award for gymnastics went to Sloan (2016) and McMurtry (2017), distinguishing them as the nation’s top collegiate gymnast. McMurtry was part of a rare double in 2017, claiming both the SEC Gymnast and the SEC Scholar-Athlete awards. 

In National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC) All-America regular-season awards, seven Gators picked up 24 honors since 2016.