Jade Ellis enters his third year at New Mexico, serving as the short sprints and horizontal jumps coach as well as recruiting coordinator. Ellis comes to New Mexico after a two year stint as the horizontal and vertical jumps coach at Northern Arizona University.
Ellis’ tenure at New Mexico has been marked with tremendous success, including multiple Mountain West champions and NCAA qualifiers. He’s coached four athletes to seven NCAA berths, including All-American Sam Trigg in the triple jump and three-time NCAA qualifier Jannell Hadnot in the triple jump. He also helped Hadnot to the UNM record in the indoor triple jump. Additionally, he coached Allan Hamilton to a sweep of the Mountain West titles in the indoor/outdoor long jump in 2016, while also guiding Trigg to the 2016 MW outdoor triple jump crown and Hadnot to back-to-back sweeps of the triple jump in 2016 and 2017.
While at NAU, Ellis’ jumpers soared to record setting heights while winning six individual conference titles. Combined with 18 conference scorers, the NAU men’s and women’s track and field teams were able to secure six conference titles during Ellis’ tenure. That success was anchored by All-American High-Jumper, Deante Kemper. Under Ellis’ tutelage, Kemper finished fourth at the 2015 NCAA Indoor track and field championships, set the indoor and outdoor school records, won three conference titles, and competed at the 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships and 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Ellis also coached High Jumper Lauren Laszczak to a 10th place finish at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships as well as two conference titles and a trip to the 2014 West Regional meet, missing the NCAA outdoor championships in a jump off.
Prior to NAU, Ellis spent two years with the University of Michigan men’s track & field program coaching the jumpers and combined events. At Michigan, he helped guide Kurt Reichenbach to a NCAA qualifying mark in the 2013 outdoor championships with a decathlon score of 7412 points.
Ellis is a 2009 graduate of Duke University where he was the 2009 ACC long jump champion and triple jump runner up; he also finished 19th at the USA Outdoor Championships and 15th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships that same year. As a freshman, Ellis finished second at the USATF Junior Championships in the long jump and a fourth place finish at the Pan-American Junior Meet in 2005. Ellis still holds three school records.
Ellis is USTFCCCA Jumps Specialist and USATF level 1 certified.