A Graduate Once... An Alumni Forever

JEFF HOLLAND

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, HEAD BASEBALL COACH, ASSISTANT FOOTBALL COACH, TEACHER – 1990 – 2019 (SAHS ALUMNI 1984)

Jeff Holland has been a student, teacher, coach and administrator at St. Augustine High School for 33 years. St. Augustine’s longtime Athletic Director is moving on from athletics to become a Dean at Pacetti Bay Middle School. [WILL BROWN/THE RECORD]

 

THE ST. AUGUSTINE/KETTERLINUS HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WISHES TO EXPRESS OUR DEEPEST APPRECIATION TO YOU FOR YOUR YEARS OF SERVICE, LEADERSHIP GIVEN TO STUDENTS, PLAYERS, COACHES, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, PARENTS AND FRIENDS, AND YOUR UNYIELDING LOYALTY. YOUR INVALUABLE SUPPORT PROVIDED TO THE “THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION”
& YOUR SINCERE DEVOTION TO “THE HIGH SCHOOL” – ST. AUGUSTINE HIGH SCHOOL

 

Excerpts from Will Brown—St. Augustine Record, July 27, 2019

After 29 years at the high school, the last 18 as athletic director, Holland said it is time to do something a little different. He said he is looking forward to beginning the final chapter in his career as an educator. “I told myself a long time ago that if you feel like you are getting a little stale in a position, it’s time to move on,” Holland said. “It’s too important to me, too important to the community and too important to the school. I feel it was the perfect time to let this position be looked at from a different set of eyes and let a good thing become even better.”

At one point this calendar year, St. Augustine was the reigning district champion in football, boys basketball, baseball and boys lacrosse. Holland was in Palm Coast in April when his son Ethan, and the rest of the boys lacrosse team, clinched the program’s third straight district title.  The girls lacrosse program was started in his tenure and become a top-20 program in the state. St. Augustine’s volleyball program appeared in a state championship game in 2012.  “He has had a great impact,” said Joe Maronel, president of the St. Augustine High School Yellow Jacket Football Boosters. “He is well-respected. I have never heard any of the kids bad-mouthing or talking bad about him. He has been there forever. He had a great impact. He is definitely going to be missed.”  Athletically, St. Augustine is most synonymous with football. The Yellow Jackets have won a state championship, appeared in three title games, won seven regional titles and 17 district titles in Holland’s tenure.

“It’s going to be quite strange, it already is,” said St. Augustine football coach Brian Braddock. “Coach Holland has been synonymous with St. Augustine High School athletics since before the turn of the century. When you look at his tenure at the AD, some of the brightest moments in the athletic department’s history have been under his guidance. When you look at the legacy he leaves, he did a tremendous job.”  Braddock said the genesis of his coaching career came in the trust Holland placed in him as a baseball player.  “Coach Holland was remarkably consistent. He was that was as a baseball coach. He was that was as the athletic director,” said Braddock, whose cousin, Matthew was on Holland’s first Yellow Jackets baseball team.  “He also was willing to put responsibility on people he thought earned it (to) help you grow. I remember as a catcher my junior year, he let me start calling the pitches. My senior year, for a majority of the time, I was able to call the game from behind the plate. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a starting off point for me as a future coach. He definitely offered a lot of insight and wisdom, specifically to me because I was the catcher. What he imparted in me as a high school player has served me well over 20 years later.”

Putting Yellow Jackets in positions of authority was not reserved for the   diamond. At least a half dozen St. Augustine graduates are currently head coaches for the maroon and gold.  Holland stresses that he did not exclusively look for alumni when filling vacancies. He wanted the most qualified person who would do right by the students entrusted to them.  “I told one of our school board members the other day that I was very excited (with) the coaching staff that we have in place now,” Holland said. “Quite a few of them are alumni. Brian Braddock, Quinterrance Cooper (boys basketball), Eric Hancock (girls basketball), Kara Lanteigne (volleyball), Josh Morton in cross country. Kyle Forson will head up our boys soccer team, Will Rinchuisa will be our wrestling coach and then girls track (has) Bobby Pettit. …If they had a tie to this school and community, we wanted to bring them back and let them come back to the community they grew up in.”

Holland graduated from the high school in 1984. During his senior season, he helped the Yellow Jackets baseball program advance to the postseason for the first time in 33 years. He played at St. Johns River College before moving on to UCF. In Orlando, Holland led the Knights in appearances (19) and ERA (3.55) during the 1987 season. He graduated in 1989 and returned to St. Augustine.  He was a physical education teacher and coached cross country and goalball within the Blind Department at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. A year later, St. Augustine had an opening for a teacher and baseball coach. The Yellow Jacket came home for the 1990-91 academic year.  St. Augustine won a district title in Holland’s first year. “I thought it was pretty easy,” Holland quipped. “I found out quickly.” Holland remained the baseball coach until 2000. By the time the Yellow Jackets won their next district baseball title, in 2018, Holland was handing the trophy to the team instead of receiving it.  Nowhere near one percent of athletes have gone on to become professional athletes, but 100 percent of students who have played high school sports have benefited from it. “They might not know it at the time. They might not think the coach who is giving them tough love is what they needed at that time. But, they figure it out. It’s being a part of something bigger than you. …High school sports, it teaches you things that further down the line in life you realize you do need or you draw back on it on a daily basis.”

Bill Ferazzi, Foots Brumley, Walt Slater and the late Wendell McCraw are all men who have served as Athletic Director at St. Augustine High School.   Holland said those men set the standard and all he did was try to improve on the foundation. Now, he will cede the position to Serge Lipovetsky. “I did 100,000 interviews for coaches and multiple meetings,” Holland said. “Success is giving our kids the best opportunity to go on the field and have as much success as they could. Our coaches put in the time in the season, summertime, out of season. The investment our coaches have made in our kids and the success in our kids is the thing that I have been the most proud of.”