Learn more about Coach Sharpe
Hometown: Milford, Ohio
Favorite Hanover Memory: I have 2 all-time Hanover College memories that are my favorites.
1.) Spending my sophomore year May Term in Italy! We traveled to Rome, Pompeii, and Sorento for our ‘Roman History’ course! The food, the culture, the museums, all the site-seeing, and all the beauty that Italy holds will always be held near and dear to my heart and part of my Hanover experience!
2). Hanover Women’s Track & Field team winning our first HCAC Championship in 2011–our team came together and worked together from the throwers, jumpers, and sprinters to the distance runners to show the conference that we were here to dominate! (We also got to have a championship dinner at the President’s house!) We then went on to win 5 back to back indoor/outdoor HCAC championships.
Best Spot on Campus:
The TRACK! It is off the beaten path, is serene, peaceful, and runs fast!
What to check out in Madison:
Hands down when you are in Madison you have to eat at the Downtowner for lunch, do a little shopping, and then hit Shooter’s for dinner. To get rid of the food coma, you will need to take a stroll on the riverfront and onto the bridge to watch the sunset–it is absolutely breathtaking!
From Athletics.Hanover.edu:
The 2021-22 academic year will be Rachel Sharpe’s third year as head track & field coach at Hanover College and the eighth year overall with the program.
Under Sharpe’s guidance, the Panther women’s track & field team has continued a standard of excellence winning the HCAC Indoor track & field championships in 2020. For her efforts, Rachel and her staff were named the HCAC Coach of the Year. Later that season, Kenna Hunter went on to qualify for the NCAA Indoor nationals in the heptathlon, which was canceled due to Covid-19 concerns.
The 2021 campaign saw Hanover continue to be a top contender in the HCAC as they placed third as part of both the indoor and outdoor championships.
On the men’s side, she guided the Panthers to a third place mark as part of the 2020 HCAC indoor championships. The 2021 campaign would see Hanover register a third place mark at the HCAC outdoor championships, while watching several records fall throughout the season including the 800-meter run record set in 1979.
Sharpe, was a four-year member of the Panthers’ track & field team as a student where she set school records as part of both the indoor 4x200m relay and the outdoor 4x400m relay. She was part of the team that won back-to-back indoor and outdoor HCAC Championships and ran a leg in the 4x400m relay that won the event her senior year. In addition, she currently ranks second all-time in school history in the outdoor 400m with a time of 59.45.
Sharpe garnered All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference honors on three separate occasions while competing as a Panther.
Twice she has been named a USTFCCCA Great Lakes Assistant Coach of the Year nominee guiding 40 sprinters to All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference honors during the 2018-19 Indoor and Outdoor Championships. During the 2019 Indoor Championship the men’s and women’s sprint and relay teams garnered 65 combined points, while posting 76 points during the Outdoor Championship.
Sharpe graduated from Hanover College in 2013 with a degree in Health and Movement Studies and as a Business Scholar. She currently is pursuing a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership in Higher Education.
She has run four half marathons and one full marathon, and lives with her husband, Devon Sharpe ’13, in Madison, Ind.
Education
B.A. in health and movement studies, Hanover College, 2013
