Friends with deep Savannah athletic ties reunite coaching Florida high school football

Harold Nelson and Russell Ellington IV met about 10 years ago, and their mutual passion for football created an instant bond.

They have worked together as assistant coaches in the past with stints at Calvary Day, Windsor Forest and Islands. Now Ellington is running his own program as the coach at Gadsden County in Havana, Florida — and he has hired his close friend Nelson as an offensive coordinator / tight ends coach.

Both men are known for the impact they have had, on and off the field, with athletes in Savannah as coaches, trainers and mentors. Recently, Nelson and Ellington were in Atlanta with Nolan Smith as the former Georgia football star from Savannah was taken in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.

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Nelson was at Calvary Day, in his second stint with the program, last season as an assistant working with tight ends, while Ellington is now working in the Florida panhandle in his first season running the Gadsden County program.

"I met Coach Ellington about 10 years ago right when he got done at Morehouse University and started coaching in Savannah," said Nelson, 40, who played at Windsor Forest in his high school days. "We connected right away because we shared that love for the game, and we've been really close ever since.

"We've always talked about it and had a dream of coaching together with one of us leading a program, and for the last two or three years we've been trying to set it up. He had a good run coaching at a private school (Munroe School in Quincy, FL) and now he's at Gadsden with the new job and gave me a call. Everything matched well with the job for me. It's going to be tough for me to leave Savannah, but we have a chance to get the band back together again and I couldn't pass up the opportunity."

Ellington IV is the grandson of Russell Ellington, the Georgia coaching legend and former Beach High basketball and football star who led his alma mater to five state titles as a basketball coach before moving on to a stellar coaching career at Savannah State. Ellington, who died in 2007, is a member of the Greater Savannah Athletic Hall of Fame and the SSU Hall of Fame.

Ellington IV, 33, grew up in Savannah before moving to Chicago before high school. He was a football star at Homewood Flossmoor High as a quarterback and safety, earning a scholarship to play at the University of Illinois. A linebacker in college, he transferred to play his senior season at Morehouse University. He then came back to Savannah and started his coaching career as an assistant at Calvary Day, where he met Nelson.

"Coach Nelson took me under his wing in my first year of coaching and taught me a lot about the game, and he reintroduced me to the Savannah area," said Ellington, who is married with a young son and daughter.

He said they clicked immediately and started a training company together — Energy Sports Academy, where they worked with athletes like Smith and Richard LeCounte, the Liberty County product who went on to star for the Bulldogs and play for the Cleveland Browns.

Ellington was an assistant at Munroe School for three years before serving as head coach last season, when the team went 6-7 and reached the third round of the state playoffs.

"Coach Nelson is very knowledgeable and detail oriented," Ellington said. "And he's a people person who knows how to connect with the players. I've been trying to get him down to Florida for the last few years to coach with me, and I'm excited we're finally going to be able to do it."

Nelson, who is married with three children, said he will start a job as a resource officer at Gadsden County, so he'll be on campus developing relationships with players and his fellow coaches. He said he can't wait to coach again with Ellington, who he said has a great offensive mind.

"I think we'll be dynamic offensively, but we'll be balanced and hard-nosed too," Nelson said. "We're going to be disciplined and structured, and work to get the ball in our playmaker's hands. I'm looking forward to getting started."

Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Russell Ellington, Harold Nelson reunite as Florida football coaches