Three-time All-American Penn State alumnus and 2016 Olympian Darrell Hill '15 enters his second season with the Nittany Lions in 2026-27. Hill was announced as an assistant coach in July 2025 and returned to his alma mater to lead the throws group.
2025-26
- In Hill’s first season, he coached Ryan Henry to First-Team All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships after Henry recorded a personal-best outdoor shot put mark of 19.65m to place sixth. The throw also moved Henry into fifth place on Penn State’s all-time men's shot put list.
- Sasha Garnett and Collin Burkhart earned Second-Team All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Garnett posted a shot put mark of 16.37m to finish 16th, while Burkhart recorded a personal-best hammer throw of 67.82m to place 13th.
- During the indoor season, Henry earned Second-Team All-American honors with a ninth-place finish in the shot put (19.19m). Lambrecht also earned Second-Team All-America honors after placing 15th with a mark of 18.74m.
- Henry also captured the Big Ten Indoor shot put title with a mark of 19.94m, moving to #3 in indoor program history.
- All 15 members of the throws group also improved their personal bests during the season, combining to produce 15 marks that rank among the top performances in Penn State history.
BEFORE PENN STATE
Hill returns to his alma mater after spending the last two years on staff at Delaware, including serving as associate head coach for the 2024-25 season. Hill mentored Olamide Ayeni to a CAA championship in the discus throw and coached two NCAA East Regional qualifiers during the 2025 outdoor season. Five throws athletes earned podium finishes at the 2025 outdoor CAA Championships under Hill’s tutelage.
Hill spent his first season at Delaware as assistant coach in 2023-24, coaching the throws group as well as the multi-event student-athletes. He mentored Alicia Lehman-Woodyard to heptathlon bronze and All-CAA honors at the 2024 CAA Outdoor Championships and coached two student-athletes to the 2024 NCAA East Regional prelims.
Hill arrived in Delaware following a stint as a volunteer assistant at San Diego State from 2017-19 and an illustrious professional career competing at the world’s highest levels. He represented the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, finishing 12th in the shot put. Hill achieved his personal-best mark of 22.44 meters in 2017 at Bruxelles Memorial Van Damme in Belgium to win the Diamond League Championship, a mark that ranks him 15th all-time in the shot put. In addition to his Olympian status, Hill is a three-time World Championship finalist, the 2018 USA Outdoor US Champion and was named the USATF Thrower of the Year in 2018.
Hill was a three-time All-American and three-time Big Ten Champion as a student-athlete at Penn State. He still owns the Penn State indoor shot put (20.51m) school record and is second all-time in school history in the outdoor shot put (20.86m). He was named both the 2015 USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Indoor and Outdoor Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, in addition to earning Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year honors.
Hill, a Philadelphia, Pa. native, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation and human services from Penn State in 2015.