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| Garfield Ellenwood II |
On his final day as Interim Director of Athletics Michael Smith, yesterday, named Garfield Ellenwood II as the new Director of Track & Field and Cross Country.
"Coach Ellenwood has a wealth of knowledge and expertise at the Division I level and beyond. He is committed to improving the quality of our program as well as raising the level of excellence in the classroom, community, and competition," Smith said in a statement.
FAMU’s press release touted Ellenwood’s 23 years of experience as a track coach most recently as an assistant at the University of Maryland.
Ellenwood spent the 2019-21 seasons at Alabama State as the associate head men's and women's track and field coach, and helped lead the Hornets to the 2021 Men's SWAC Indoor Championship and 2021 Women's SWAC Outdoor Championship.
Throughout his coaching career, 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, FAMU said.
The FAMU Athletics announcement omits Ellenwood’s alleged involvement in a 2005 track and field doping scandal in which Coach Trevor Graham, who has received a lifetime ban from coaching, told federal agents that one of his athletes, sprinter Patrick Jarrett, had been given what he called an "unknown substance" by Ellenwood.
Then five years later, in 2010, it appears that Ellenwood accepted a two-year suspension from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for violating the applicable sport anti-doping rules.