Ball State track and field head coach Brian Etelman confirmed a trio of new coaches that will join the Cardinals for 2017-18 track and field and cross country seasons.
Nate Brown, Alexus Jimson-Miller and Anna Farello join the coaching staff after being in conversations with Etelman throughout the summer.
This is the first time in Etelman’s three-year coaching career at Ball State where the team has had more than three coaches, and with practicing beginning this week, all of them are ready to take on their new roles.
“Indoor season can’t get here soon enough,” assistant throws coach Nate Brown said. “I’m ready to see what these girls are capable of. I have a good idea in mind, but to see them actually do it will be awesome from my standpoint.”
Brown, instructor and advisor in the School of Kineisology, has been at Ball State for as long as Etelman has.
Working on the third floor of the Health and Physical Activity Building on campus, Brown has served as the volunteer assistant throws coach at Hamilton Heights High School for the past two seasons.
He stayed up to date with the track and field program’s success, so when Etelman approached him last spring for a potential job, there wasn’t much thought put into it.
“Etelman just came up to my office and asked if I was willing to help out with the throwers,” Brown said. “I’ve always had a huge passion for track and field so it was kind of an easy answer.”
Brown, a former thrower at Indiana State University, admits that while he wasn’t a “stellar athlete,” he knows what it takes to get there. Working with a young group of throwers this upcoming season, he’ll have time to develop his goals of sending Ball State athletes to regional and national competition.
Alexus Jimson-Miller, a recent graduate from Miami (Ohio), will be working closely with Etelman as an assistant coach with a focus in the sprints, hurdles and jumps teams.
And it’s not the first time she’s worked with Etelman either.
“Coach Etelman was actually the one who recruited me to Miami when I was there, so it was kind of an easy transition,” Jimson-Miller said. “We had a really good relationship there, so it was cool of him to reach out to me for this position.”
As an athlete, Jimson-Miller was a two-time Mid-American Conference hurdle winner, setting the school and conference record in 100m hurdles at the 2017 outdoor championships, advancing to two straight NCAA East Preliminary berths.
For now, Jimson-Miller is getting accustomed to her new role as a coach and her pursuit of a master's’ degree in Emerging Media Design and Development.
But as the season progresses, she’s confident in her and Etelman’s dynamic will continue to develop.
“We kind of understand each other and I understood his training [at Miami],” Jimson-Miller said. “Being understanding of each other and me bringing the athletic side, me being a recent athlete, we’ll be able to use that dynamic really well.”
While Etelman reached out to both Brown and Jimson-Miller, that wasn’t the same story for 2017 University of Portland graduate Anna Farello.
Farello was choosing between the University of Denver and Ball State to pursue her master’s degree. But, after finishing her undergraduate career in both cross country and track and field, she wasn’t sure what she whether or not she wanted to stay involved with track and field.
She wasn’t contacted by Etelman, instead, she reached out to him.
“I was kind of hesitant about contacting [Etelman] because I wasn’t sure how my track season was going to end and how I was going to be feeling after taking a break,” Farello said. “Once I started running again in the summer, that’s when I decided I was going to try and reach out.”
Farello, who made appearances in the NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships, will be working with the distance runners alongside Raynee DeGrio.
Through her time with the team, she wants to inspire the athletes with her the experiences she had as an undergraduate.
“I’m really hoping that I will inspire some people to work that much harder, push that much farther in a race and reach out if they need help,” Farello said. “Running, over the years, has come to mean a lot to me, and I can’t go a day without it now.
“It really does mean a lot to me, and that’s another reason why I hope to share my passion with any of the runners.”
The cross country season opens up Sept. 1 for at the Butler Open in Carmel, Indiana, while the indoor track and field season will not begin until December.
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