Florida A&M

Updated July 2024

Interim Director of Athletics Michael Smith announced Garfield Ellenwood II (Coach Gee) as the Director of Track and Field and Cross Country in January 2023. 

In the fall of 2023, Ellenwood led the women’s cross-country team to its first SWAC Championship. And in Spring 2024, Ellenwood followed that historic feat by guiding the women’s indoor track and field team to its first SWAC title. He was named the SWAC Coach of the Year at the end of both seasons. 

The first 16 months of Coach’s tenure also highlighted four SWAC records, 18 school records, and 33 All-SWAC performers, including the 2024 SWAC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, Breanna Brown-Marshall. Ellenwood also sent five Rattlers to the 2024 NCAA East Preliminary Championships, the most individual qualifiers in program history. 

Academically, the Rattlers performed well in the classroom, with the 2024 season boasting the highest team grade point averages in five years – the women’s team earned a 3.44 and the men a 3.23.

Coach Ellenwood brought 23 years of proven success to FAMU. At the University of Maryland, he coached the sprint, hurdle, and jump groups, leading Caleb Dean to a school record in the 60-meter dash and the second fastest 200-meter performance, both during the 2022 outdoor season. Dean went on to qualify for the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400-meter hurdles, where he earned second team All-American honors.

Coach Ellenwood is no stranger to the SWAC as he served as Associate Head Coach at Alabama State, where the men captured the 2021 SWAC Indoor Conference Championship while the women's team captured the 2021 SWAC outdoor team championship. Ellenwood's coaching prowess can be seen through the success of his student-athletes, as he has coached several conference championships, Division I first-team All-Americans, and NCAA Champions throughout his coaching career.  

In 2021 Ellenwood led Tionna Brown to freshman of the year honors. During the indoor championships, she also broke the SWAC indoor 60m record (7.31). The men's and women's sprint squads swept the short sprint events (100m & 200m) at the outdoor conference championships. David East set the men's 100m school record (10.16), while Tionna Brown set the freshman 100m record (11.26).
 
Throughout his time coaching, Ellenwood has coached and mentored thirteen NCAA Division I first-team All-Americans in sprint and hurdle events and three National Champions, one of which was a three-time champion in the sprint hurdles. Ellenwood spent two years at Mississippi State (2011-13), where he coached Thirteen All-SEC performers, twelve East Regional qualifiers, and ten NCAA final-round qualifiers. During that time at Mississippi State, Ellenwood coached DeAngelo Cherry to become an NCAA 60m champion in 2013. Before his time at Mississippi State, he led the Bethune-Cookman University men's and women's programs. During the 2008 outdoor season, he led the women's 4x100m relay to the NCAA final round (the first women to ever compete for B-CU at the NCAA Division I Championships in track & field) and Ronnie Ash to a third-place finish in the 110h. In 2009, Ellenwood's B-CU programs made history by guiding 11 total athletes to the NCAA final round, the most from any one HBCU in NCAA Division I history. Ronnie Ash captured back-to-back NCAA sprint hurdle Championships, and the men's team captured a top-25 finish of #23 at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. 

Before B-CU, Ellenwood served as an assistant coach at UNLV, where he led the women's program to garner national attention. In 2006, Ellenwood led Ashley Owens (personal best of 7.19) to the NCAA 60m runner-up. During the 2006 indoor and outdoor seasons, Christine Spence earned three NCAA First-Team All-American honors, while Halima DeCree (personal best of 11.25) also earned first-team NCAA All-American honors.  

Internationally, Ellenwood has a strong history of leading athletes to Olympic successes. The Tokyo Olympics marked Ellenwood's fifth consecutive Olympics, where he had a competing athlete. Ellenwood guided Christina Clemons to earning her first Olympic experience this summer and set a personal record of 12.51 in the 100 hurdles. Ellenwood also served as Clemons' coach as she would become the #7 world-ranked hurdler. 

In 2016 he guided two athletes to the Rio Olympic Games, Ronnie Ash to his first and Jeff Porter to his second Olympic Games (London 2012) in the 110h. In 2015 Ronnie Ash earned a #9 world ranking in the 110h, and Sharika Nelvis earned a #2 world ranking and the fastest time in the world (12.34) in the 100h. Both were Team USA Beijing World Championship Team members, and Ellenwood coached both. 

In 2008, Ellenwood would lead Angela Williams (personal and world best of 7.06) to the 2008 Indoor World Championships 60m World Title. In 2008 Ellenwood was named Head coach of the Liberian National and 2008 Beijing Olympic Team.

Coach Ellenwood graduated from Essex County College with an associate's degree in Physical Education and Seton Hall University with a bachelor's degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Garfield and his wife, Joyce Ellenwood, have two children – daughter Diamond Ellenwood, son Chadwick Ellenwood, and granddaughter Aubree Brown.