New Faces, Different Places: Russell Ellington takes the reins of Munroe Football

GRETNA, Fla. (WCTV) - A new era for Bobcats Football. Following the departure of Alex Lehky, Russell Ellington was promoted to head coach at Munroe. The turnaround of the football program the past couple of years is one of the best in the area. Ellington says he owes everything to Coach Lehky and is excited to take the reins.

“I’m very excited. I think we can do something special here. It’s going to be on us coaches,” Ellington said, “I’m excited for the task. We have the talent and everything. We have to coach them up, have to make sure they’re disciplined, have to make sure they’re doing the right things in school--it’s a hard task for us but we’re up to it.”

Coming off an 8-3 season, the standard is winning. Ellington, though, has brought his unique style to Quincy. Senior JP2 transfer Makari Vickers says it’s coach’s enthusiasm that sets the tone.

“I can definitely say he brings a lot of energy,” Vickers laughs, “From when we first started talking about my transition over here, he’s been saying how he has a lot of things changing in the program with him being the head coach. The intensity--he’s always at a ten. He’s never going to change regardless if it’s during practice, before practice, or after practice. He’s the same guy.”

There’s no doubt about it--the Bobcats have brought back some dudes. Vickers is one of them as a four-star top 100 rated defensive back recruit. Or how about four-star senior wide receiver Ahmari Borden who’s committed to Stanford.

These guys can play, but what impresses Coach Ellington is that they want to be coached to be successful. It’s made the transition to being the head man as easy as can be.

“They’re always wanting to get better. They’ll say, ‘Coach, let’s do that rep over’. Iron sharpening iron out here so it’s just been beautiful,” Ellington concluded, “I just want to bring a little more toughness to the program. Obviously, people look at us as a private school like we aren’t as tough as the public schools. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We all have the same weight room, we all use the same weights, we all put the pads on the same way--I just want our guys to know that no matter who we line ourselves up against, we’re going to be up to the challenge.”

Munroe opens up its season Friday, August 26th at home against Georgia’s Terrell County at 7:00PM.