UWF ATHLETICS - Key Persons

Alex Guyer

Job Titles:

Assistant
Coach
Title / Assistant Coach

Alycia Grieco

ag..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Director of Compliance
Title / Director of Compliance

Amy Napier

an..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Head Athletic Trainer ( MBB, WG )

Amy Robinson

Job Titles:

Assistant Athletic Director / Financial Operations

Amy Robinson joined the University of West Florida athletic staff in February 2016 as the Assistant Athletic Director for Financial Operations. In her role, Robinson serves as the financial officer for the department and develops and manages all departmental budgets while providing budget projections and forecasting models for strategic planning purposes. She is responsible for submitting annual financial reports to the NCAA and Department of Educatio. She also manages the day to day financial operations while adhering to University, Gulf South Conference and NCAA policies and procedures. In November of 2003, Robinson joined the UWF Recreation and Sports Services department and served as their Business Manager for over 12 years. She also served in a dual position as the Business Manager for the Student Health Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, Wellness Services and the Student Disability Resource Center. In these roles, Robinson was responsible for managing multiple budgets totaling over $5 million dollars and providing budget plans and projections to the Assistant Vice President and Directors in these departments. Robinson earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration specializing in Accounting from the University of West Florida and her Master of Science in Management from Troy University. She is a graduate of the College Business Management Institute hosted by the University of Kentucky, a recipient of the Student Affairs Professional Excellence Award and a graduate of the UWF Leadership Enhancement and Development class. She is married to Darren Robinson and has two children, Haley and Luke.

Anthony Stilo

as..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer ( MG, MSOC, Spring FB )

Arick Gonzalez

Job Titles:

Title

Arick Gonzales begins his first season in his new role with Argonauts men's soccer team in his role as director of soccer operations. Gonzales looks to continue to give back to his alma mater after completing his undergraduate degree in hospitality management and getting his minor in sports management in the spring of 2019 from UWF. During his time as a player, Arick was a key defender and midfielder on the 2016 and 2018 teams that earned spots in the Gulf South Conference Tournament Finals. Gonzales only had one career goal but it came in the biggest of moments as he scored a late game-winning goal at Auburn University at Montgomery. He succeded off the field as well as Arick was named to the 2016 GSC FireSeeds Fall Academic Honor Roll as well as the 2017 GSC Fall Academic Honor Roll.

Ashliegh McLean

am..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Coach
Head
Title / Head Coach

Ashliegh McLean was named head coach of the UWF softball program in May 2018, after four years as an assistant with the team. UWF made the GSC Tournament for the fourth consecutive season, adding 13 wins to McLean's ledger of 75 total wins in 99 games for a winning percentage of .758, the second highest mark of any Gulf South Conference team since 2019. McLean also won the 150th game of her career on April 6th against West Georgia. Hannah Harper became the first Argo since Teala Howard in 2019 to earn a first-team All-GSC and first-team All-South Region nod, as she led the team in batting average, hits, runs and on-base percentage. Erin Moon continued her upward trajectory as she was a first-team All-GSC selection, becoming the first UWF catcher on the first team in 18 seasons. McLean and the Argonauts had another 30-win season in 2022, marking the program's sixth in the last six full seasons. Teala Howard was again an All-American and All-South Region selection, while also earning South Region Player of the Year (D2CCA) and GSC Player of the Year honors. Kelsey Sweatt was an all-region and first team All-GSC selection for a third time, while Erin Moon, Madelyn Vasquez, and Montana Young earned All-GSC accolades for the first time in their careers. The 2022 season saw Howard and Sweatt wrap up their careers in the Blue and Green, along with another impressive offensive season for the Argos. Howard finished her career ranking in the top 10 in program history in batting average, hits, runs, stolen bases, total bases, and triples. Sweatt now ranks in the top 10 in UWF history in strikeouts, K/7, H/7, wins, no-hitters, and innings pitched. The team hit 43 home runs, which is the fourth-most in program history and marks the first time that UWF has had 40+ home runs in consecutive seasons. After a COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, the 2021 season provided more accolades and excitement for McLean and the Argonauts. With a 33-16 record, McLean lead UWF to its fifth season with 30 or more wins in the last five full years, and the 2021 squad set program records in slugging percentage (.494) and home runs (51). Teala Howard earned All-American status from the NFCA and D2CCA again, while she, Courtney McLellan, Ally Merrill, Jacquelynne Poling, Kelsey Sweatt, and Kara Wilson each picked All-Region honors. McLean also earned her 100th career win during the 2021 season, on May 1 against Lee. Her 104-36 record through three seasons gives her a .743 career winning percentage -- better than any other current coach in the GSC through their first three seasons at their respective schools. The offense took another step forward in the 2021 season, setting program records in home runs (51) and slugging percentage (.494). It's tough to imagine a better possible start for the Argonauts during McLean's first year as head coach, as she led the team to a Gulf South Conference Championship, a South Region Title, and a trip to the NCAA Championship in Denver. The team also spent four weeks as the No. 1-ranked team in the country, on the way to earning the 1-seed in the South Region. Awards flowed in for McLean and UWF, as Rhiannon Sassman, Teala Howard, and Kelsey Sweatt were each named All-Americans. Sassman was also the D2CCA South Region Player of the Year and the GSC Player of the Year, Howard was named the GSC Freshman of the Year, and Sweatt earned D2CCA South Region Pitcher of the Year honors, while McLean was named the GSC Coach of the Year -- her first such award and UWF's sixth.

Barbara Parker

Job Titles:

Diving Coach

Ben Stevens

Job Titles:

Sports Performance Graduate Assistant

Bill Elliott

Job Titles:

Coach
Head

The men's and women's soccer teams at the University of West Florida are known as two of the most successful programs at the Division II level, and UWF has Bill Elliott to thank for that legacy. Elliott began his tenure as head coach for both the men's and women's teams in 1995, and since that point UWF has taken over as the dominant school in Gulf South Conference soccer and is one of the most respected programs across the country. Elliott has led the Argonauts men's soccer team for 28 seasons, and he was also head coach for the women's team from 1995 to 2001. As the leader of the UWF men's team, Elliott has compiled a record of 284-125-45 (.661), and he led the Argos women's team to a 98-34-6 (.732) record in his seven seasons leading both. With both teams combined, the Tennessee grad holds an overall record of 382-159-51 (.686). In his 28 years leading the UWF men's soccer team, the Argonauts have won ten GSC championships, the most in conference history. The Argos have also made 19 appearances in the GSC Tournament and seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In 2006, UWF went on a record-setting run, advancing to the NCAA Championships before falling in the semifinals to eventual national champion Dowling on penalty kicks. In men's soccer, Elliott is a seven-time GSC Coach of the Year and three-time South Region Coach of the Year. In the summer of 2010, he was also named to the GSC Men's Soccer All-Time Team, honoring the top coach in GSC men's soccer through the conference's first 14 seasons sponsoring the sport. Elliott was later named as the GSC coach of the decade for the period of 2010-2019. In 2021, Elliott coached the UWF men's soccer team to win their first Gulf South Conference title since 2013. The men's team made it to the second round of the Division II NCAA tournament. This is the program's 10th GSC Championship title and 19th tournament appearance. Under his leadership, the Argonauts have boasted ten All-Americans, including first team All-Americans Eduardo Oliveira (2006), Keith Savage (2006) and Jimmy McHenry (2007). He has also coached six GSC Players of the Year, four GSC Freshmen of the Year, 95 All-GSC players and six GSC Tournament Most Outstanding Players. The Argonauts have also performed well in the classroom under Elliott's watch, with 44 players earning GSC All-Academic Team honors.

Brett Beattie

Job Titles:

Volunteer Assistant

Brett Beattie is entering his 4th season serving as a Volunteer Assistant Coach with the UWF Women's Tennis team. Beattie, a former professional tennis player himself, has spent the past thirty years as a United States Professional Tennis Association Instructor coaching around the Emerald Coast area. In 2018, Beattie was apart of the coaching staff that helped guide the UWF Women's Tennis team to the NCAA Championship for just the second time in program history.

Brett Berg

bb..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Assistant Vice President for Development at the University of West Florida
Development & Corporate Partnerships
Title / Assistant Vice President for Development

Brett Berg serves as Assistant Vice President for Development at the University of West Florida. He serves on the leadership teams of the Division of University Advancement and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. He oversees all fundraising activities for the university's athletic programs, including annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, corporate giving and the Argonaut Athletic Club, the official booster organization for UWF. He plans and manages all capital fundraising initiatives and football game day development operations. Berg and his team have set fundraising records each year in either the number of donors, total dollars raised, pledges or planned gifts to support the Argonauts. He has secured 21 of the top 25 largest gifts to UWF Athletics including the first six-figure gift and seven-figure gift for athletics in university history. He was recently named the ‘Outstanding Fundraising Professional' by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and ‘National Fundraiser of the Year' by the National Association of Athletic Development Directors

Brian Henry

bh..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Director
Sports Information Director ( FB, WBB, M / W Golf )

Brian Henry was named Director of Athletic Communications at the University of West Florida in August of 2015. During his time at UWF, he has promoted more than a dozen all-Americans, 12 College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans and numerous top-10 programs. He served as the primary contact for the men's tennis program's 2017 national championship and football's historic run to the 2017 national title game as a second-year program and 2019 National Championship. He has been the media coordinator of more than a dozen NCAA Championship events hosted by UWF, along with eight Gulf South Conference postseason tournaments. Henry created the UWF Sports Network and is the executive producer of Argo Sports Insider, the 30-minute television shows that air regionally for 32 weeks from September through April. He also oversaw the move to bring all video production in-house in the fall of 2022 and designed the centralized athletics video control room in the summer of 2023. He currently serves as the 2nd Vice President on the D2SIDA Board and has completed terms as a NCAA South Regional Advisory Committee Member for women's tennis and as a D2SIDA South Region Representative. He is also a member of the CSC Professional Development and Academic All-America Committees. Henry came to Pensacola after a 4-year stint as the associate athletics media relations director at the University of Massachusetts. During his time, he worked with three postseason teams in men's basketball, including the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 16 years in 2014, along with Atlantic 10 championships in softball (2012) and men's swimming & diving (2015). He has also served as the media director for the 2013 and 2015 A-10 Softball Championships. Henry was at the forefront of a number of important events at UMass, including the football program's transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision and Derrick Gordon's landmark announcement in April 2014 when he became the first openly gay Division I men's basketball player. He also successfully promoted a pair of Academic All-America honorees in men's soccer and Michaela Butler at the 2013 & 2014 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships where she earned three all-America honors in diving, becoming the first All-American diver in conference history. Prior to his time at UMass, Henry served three years as the Sports Information Director at Lamar University from 2007-10. In addition to working with the baseball, men's basketball, men's and women's golf, women's soccer and volleyball teams, that was also the time the university restarted the FCS football program after a 20-year hiatus. He led the department into the social media realm, creating the first twitter accounts and authoring the first-ever athletics blog at LU. He also worked at the University of Missouri and UTEP for three years from 2004-07 and completed an internship at Vanderbilt University. Henry has worked on the media coordination staffs of more than 20 bowl games, including 10 Cotton Bowl Classics. He also did an internship with the American Junior Golf Association in the summer of 1999. A 2004 graduate of Troy University with a degree in journalism and sports information, he worked three years in the SID office where he served as the contact for the Trojan baseball, golf and volleyball teams. He also worked in the SID office at SMU from 1996-99. A native of Tucson, Ariz., he and his wife Tracy have a daughter, Abigail, and a son, Andrew.

Brook Pace

Brook Pace became UWF's first ever women's soccer All-American under Elliott in 1999, and he also coached one GSC Player of the Year, two GSC Freshmen of the Year, 23 All-GSC first team players, and three GSC Tournament Most Outstanding Players. UWF also had six women's soccer players earn GSC All-Academic honors under Elliott's watch.

Brooke Ciolino

bc..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Coach
Cheerleading Coach

Caleb Carmichael

cc..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Coach
Head
Assistant Coach at West Florida
Title / Head Coach

After three years as an assistant coach at West Florida, Caleb Carmichael was named head coach of the UWF men's and women's cross country teams during the summer of 2013. He is the third head coach to oversee both the men's and women's cross country programs at the University of West Florida. In his first season in 2013, he coached the men's and women's teams to runner-up finishes in the GSC. The women placed fourth at the NCAA South Regional while the men finished fifth. A total of seven Argos (three men and four women) earned NCAA All-South Region honors, the most in a single season at UWF. In addition, a total of 11 Argos (seven men and four women) earned All-Gulf South Conference honors, also the most in a single season at UWF. In his second season in 2014, he coach the women's team to a runner-up finish in the GSC and the men's team to a third-place finish. A total of six Argos (three men and three women) earned All-GSC honors and three Argos (one man and two women) earned NCAA All-South Region honors. Carmichael coached UWF's first women's GSC individual champion and first women's NCAA South Region champion, Kelley Bahn. Bahn would go on to finish 44th at NCAA D-II Nationals. Caleb is the son of Jeff Carmichael and Toni Hutto. He is married to the former Johanna Henry. The couple have a daughter, Elyse, and a son, Donovan. Carmichael is pursuing a master's degree in physical education at UWF.

Carley Barjaktarovich

cb..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Sports Performance Graduate Assistant

Chance Rone

Job Titles:

Graduate Assistant

Christina Paccadolmi

Job Titles:

Assistant
Coach
Title / Assistant Coach

Christina Paccadolmi comes to UWF from New York where she graduated from Hofstra University with her Bachelor's in 2019 and her Master's in 2021.

Dakota Lee

Job Titles:

Assistant Athletic Director / Events & Facilities

Dakota Lee re-joined the UWF athletic department in November 2019 as the Director of Marketing and Ticketing. Lee spent the past two seasons as the Box Office and Sales Manager with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He worked with season ticket holders, developed mini-plans and facilitated group tickets. Lee earned a bachelors in Sport Management and a master's degree in Business Administration; both from the University of West Florida. He has worked in the athletic department for UWF for three years and served as the box office manager for his last two years.

Dave Scott

ds..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Administration
Associate Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics
Director at the University of West Florida

Dave Scott started his term as athletic director at the University of West Florida on May 21, 2008. During his time leading the department, UWF athletics has seen unprecedented growth while its teams continue to enjoy success. Scott's duties include managing daily operations, implementing strategic initiatives and developing athletic priorities with staff input. During his tenure as athletic director, the department has finished multiple large projects. UWF athletics completed a visioning team process and facilities master plan under his watch, and he also led the department in adding women's swimming and diving (2013) and football (2016).

Derrick Racine

dr..@uwf.edu

Job Titles:

Coach
Head
Title / Head Coach

Derrick Racine is in his 23nd season as head coach of the West Florida men's and women's tennis teams. Since taking over the tennis programs from legendary head coach Ralph "Skeeter" Carson, Racine has continued the tradition and excellence of men's and women's tennis in Pensacola. Racine, the 2003, 2005, 2012, 2014, and 2017 Division II Wilson/ITA Men's Tennis National Coach of the Year and the 2002 Division II Wilson/ITA Women's Tennis National Coach of the Year, immediately immersed himself and his team into the UWF and Pensacola tennis communities. Today, both the men's and women's teams enjoy widespread support. Along with four national championships, Racine's men's teams have posted a 550-125 (.818) overall record, including a 88-15 (.854) mark over the last four seasons. Under Racine's command, the men's team has won eleven Gulf South Conference titles. The West Florida men's tennis team has finished the season ranked in the ITA Top 10 in every season consecutively dating back to 2002, and has finished in the top 5 in 12 of the last 20 seasons under Racine. The women's overall record under Racine is 496-157 (.760) and a 82-21 (.796) record over the last four seasons. As head coach Racine has led the UWF women's tennis team to 16 GSC titles, the most all-time by any program. Under Racine the West Florida women's tennis team has finished the season ranked in the ITA Top 10 in 21 of 22 seasons as head coach. In 2014, Racine led the men's team to the programs third national championship in 11 years with a 5-3 win over Hawaii Pacific. The West Florida men's squad went undefeated with a 29-0 record and was ranked first overall for the entire season. The women's team posted a record of 24-5 in 2014 and not only won a conference championship, but also made it to the NCAA South Regional finals. Racine led the men's team to their first national championship in 2004. The Argonauts won a school record 33 matches en route to earning West Florida's then third national championship with a 5-2 win over conference-rival Valdosta State. The Argonauts followed with a 30-2 record in 2005 and their second straight national championship after a 5-0 win over North Florida. West Florida became the seventh men's tennis team in Division II history to win consecutive national titles. Since arriving in Pensacola in 1999, Racine has been named the Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year 26 times (twelve awards for the men's squad and 14 for the women's squad). He is an 12-time Wilson/ITA South Region Coach of the Year (eight men's awards and four women's awards). Racine has produced 19 women and 34 men's NCAA Division II All-America players. Under Racine's tutelage, Bruno Savi won the 2013 USTA/ITA DII National Small College Championship while Radovan Chrz was the 2000 and 2001 ITA/NCAA Division II National Singles Champion. In 2006 Tammy Kevey and Mandy Septoe won the NCAA Division II doubles title at the ITA/National Small College Championships. 13 student-athletes (six men, seven women) have been named the GSC East Division Player of the Year, while 10 tennis players (three women, seven men) have earned GSC East Division Freshman of the Year honors. In 2012 the GSC stopped playing with divisions. Since then, he has coached 14 GSC Players of the Year (six men, eight women) and five GSC Freshman of the Year (two men, three woman). UWF women's tennis players have been honored with 82 All-GSC honors since Racine's first season in 1999. During Racine's tenure, UWF men's tennis players have received 64 All-GSC honors. In 2022, Racine led the West Florida Men's Tennis Team to win their 14th Gulf South Conference Championship and had a perfect GSC record on the season with 9-0. UWF made their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Racine was named Men's Tennis GSC Coach of the Year for the 27th time since becoming head tennis coach at UWF. Racine began his head coaching career at Mobile in 1995. At Mobile, Racine posted an impressive 76-9 record with his men's squad and an equally impressive 77-6 record with the women. In 1996, his men's and women's teams were NAIA National Runners-up. In 1997, his men won the NAIA National Title and his women finished as National Runner-up. In 1998, his men's team once again challenged for the title and finished National runner-up. His women's squad finished the season ranked third. In 1997, Racine was named NAIA Coach of the Year. He coached 24 NAIA All-Americans, four NAIA National Award winners, and nine NAIA Academic All-Americans. From 1993 to 1995, Racine served as an assistant coach at his alma mater Valdosta State. Racine's collegiate tennis background stems back to the 1980s when he played at perennial junior college powerhouse Abraham Baldwin College in Georgia and GSC rival Valdosta State. He was nationally ranked and achieved All-American status in both singles and doubles. Outside the calendar year, Racine has been running two summer camps at the University of West Florida main campus. For the past four years, Racine has coordinated Nike Summer Tennis Camps hosted by UWF. Outside the court, Racine earned a bachelor's degree from Valdosta State in finance in 1988 and later returned to earn his master's degree in physical education in 1995. Racine is married to the former Terrie Denham from Ashburn, Ga. The couple has three sons: Olin, Austin, and Luke.