Aaron Kelton (born ) is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach. He is the head football coach for

Savannah State University ) , established = , closed = , type = Public historically black university , parent = University System of Georgia , academic_affiliation = Space-grant , endowment ...

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, a position he has held since 2022. Kelton served as the head football coach at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

from 2010 to 2015 and

Shorter University Shorter University is a private Baptist university in Rome, Georgia. It was founded in 1873 and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through six colleges and schools. In addition Shorter operates the Robert H. Ledbetter College of Busines ...

Rome, Georgia Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statisti ...

from 2016 to 2017. He was also the interim head football coach at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

for the final three games of the 2019 season.

Early years

A native of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Kelton attended

Wellesley High School Wellesley High School is a public high school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States, educating students on grades 9 through 12. The principal is Jamie Chisum, who took the position in 2014 after the departure of Andrew Keough. As of 2022 ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

.Aaron Kelton
, Columbia University, retrieved December 1, 2010. He then attended

Springfield College Springfield College is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. It confers undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor J ...

, from which he graduated in 1992 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. While there, he earned a varsity letter in football all four years and spent two as the starting

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

.Springfield College Grad Aaron Kelton '92 Named Head Football Coach at Williams
, Springfield College, May 19, 2010.

Coaching career

From 1992 through 1996, Kelton coached

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

in Massachusetts. His first

coaching position was in 1997, with

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

. He spent a year each at

Clarion Clarion may refer to: Music * Clarion (instrument), a type of trumpet used in the Middle Ages * The register of a clarinet that ranges from B4 to C6 * A trumpet organ stop that usually plays an octave above unison pitch * "Clarion" (song), a 2 ...

and

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, then was with Virginia State from 2001 through 2005, serving all but his first year there as

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

. Kelton served as the

secondary coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

at Columbia for 2006 and 2007, and was then promoted to defensive coordinator for 2008 and 2009.

Williams

In May 2010,

hired Kelton as head coach of the Ephs football team to replace Mike Whalen, who resigned to return to his alma mater,

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

. With the hiring, Kelton became the first black varsity head coach at Williams College and the seventh black head football coach at the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

level. In 2010, Kelton guided the Ephs to an 8–0 record and the

New England Small College Athletic Conference The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective Liberal arts education, liberal arts institutions of high ...

(NESCAC) championship, and became the first Williams College football coach to go undefeated in his debut season. For the performance, he was named the 2010 NESCAC Coach of the Year. Kelton resigned his position after the 2015 season after only going 1–5 against archrival

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

Shorter

Kelton was head coach of the

Shorter Hawks The Shorter Hawks are the athletic teams that represent Shorter University, located in Rome, Georgia, in intercollegiate sports at the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Hawks have primarily competed in ...

in 2016 and 2017, with the team going winless during those two seasons. He also served as Shorter's interim

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

during 2017.

Morgan State

Kelton spent the 2018 season as co-defensive coordinator for the

Morgan State Bears The Morgan State Bears are the twelve varsity sports teams representing Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field; women's-only bow ...

Howard

In July 2019, Kelton joined

as the director of football operations. In November 2019, Kelton became the interim head coach for the

Howard Bison The Howard Bison and Lady Bison are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Howard University, located in Washington, D.C. The Bison compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s and Division I Footba ...

when first-year head coach

Ron Prince Ronald Dale Prince (born September 18, 1969) is an American college football coach. He was previously the assistant head coach and offensive line coach for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). In college football, he has serv ...

was placed on administrative leave.

Head coaching record

Notes

References

External links

Savannah State profile

Howard profile

Morgan State profile

Shorter profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelton, Aaron 1970s births Living people American football quarterbacks Clarion Golden Eagles football coaches Columbia Lions football coaches Concord Mountain Lions football coaches Howard Bison football coaches MIT Engineers football coaches Morgan State Bears football coaches Savannah State Tigers football coaches Shorter Hawks football coaches Springfield Pride football players Williams Ephs football coaches Virginia State Trojans football coaches High school football coaches in Massachusetts Virginia State University alumni People from Wellesley, Massachusetts Coaches of American football from Massachusetts Players of American football from Boston African-American coaches of American football 20th-century American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportspeople