Beginning his second season at Midwestern State, Donte Ellington brings a great amount of experience to the Mustangs' staff both as a player and as a coach.
Ellington's receivers excelled under his tutelage in his first season at MSU Texas. The unit caught 245 balls for 3,388 yards and 33 scores, including a trio of 40 catch performers in Tyrique Edwards (48 rec., 680 yds., 6 TD), D.J. Myers (40 rec., 638 yds., 7 TD) and Xavier Land (40 rec., 334 yds., 5 TD). The Maroon and Gold featured one of the most potent aerial assaults in the nation, rolling up 308.0 passing yards per game to rank 11th in NCAA Division II.
The wide receivers coach spent the previous two seasons in the junior college ranks competing in the highly respected Jayhawk Conference.
Ellington served as associated head coach and director of football operations while mentoring wide receivers last season at Independence Community College (Kan.). The Pirates came on strong to win the last four games of the season to finish with a 5-4 mark while amassing 334.6 yards of total offense per game.
Ellington served the previous campaign coaching running backs and offensive linemen while taking on the role as special teams coordinator at Garden City Community College (Kan.) in 2015. The Broncbuster special teams unit thrived under his guidance blocking seven kicks and two punts while recovering five fumbles and an on-side kick.
Prior to Garden City, Ellington spent two seasons (2014, 2015) at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif. During his first campaign with the Oaks, he worked with running backs and kick returners. His rushers ran for 1,494 yards and 12 touchdowns. Two of those backs made the move from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
He also mentored one of the top NAIA kick returners in the country in Daniel Jones, who amassed 764 kick return yards and also made the move to Division II when Menlo discontinued its football program.
Ellington began his collegiate coaching career leading defensive backs during the 2013 campaign with the Oaks. That season, Menlo made the trek to Wichita Falls and took a 64-7 loss to Midwestern State.
Prior to Menlo, he spent ten seasons coaching the wide receivers and defensive backs at his alma mater, San Jose High School. In his last two seasons he acted as the offensive and defensive coordinator.
Playing Career
Ellington competed professionally with the San Jose Sabercats of the Arena Football League (AFL), Arizona Adrenaline of the Indoor Football League (IFL) and the San Jose Wolves of the American Indoor Football League (AIFL) from 2009-12. During his indoor tenure, he earned opportunities to work out with various NFL teams.
Ellington played collegiately at San Jose City College and then nationally ranked NCAA Division II Northwood University in Michigan. He was trained thoroughly by veteran wide receivers coach Keith Williams, who was formerly on Mike Riley's Nebraska Cornhusker staff.
Personal
Ellington is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certified personal trainer working at D1 Sports Training where he trained various talents from Vernon Davis of the NFL's Denver Broncos to Daniel Winnick of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs. He also managed his own performance training business, GroundUP Training, where he trained various college athletes and NFL free agents.
The Ellington File
Asst. Coach at San Jose HS - 2005-14
Asst. Coach at Menlo (Calif.) (DB/RB/ST) - 2013-14
Asst. Coach at Garden City CC (RB/OL/ST) - 2015
Assoc. Head Coach at Independence CC (WR) - 2016
Asst. Coach at Midwestern State (WR) - 2017-
