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.
West Florida picked up another two Gulf South Conference and All-South Region runners on the men's side in 2015, in Tim Wenger and Nick Merrett. Wenger finished fifth at the NCAA South Region Championship and earned a trip to NCAA Nationals -- the first Argonaut to do so for the men's team since 2006. Merrett ended his career in 2015 as a three-time All-GSC runners, one of just eight members of the men's program to achieve the feat. Wenger would cap off his career in the same way, just a year later.
Four more Argonauts earned All-GSC honors in 2016, including newcomer Renee Cox on the women's team. Both teams took event wins at the Gulf Coast Stampede, and the men's team, led by Wenger, Don Kerrigan, and William Kemmler, also won the FSU Invitational. All three of the men earned All-GSC honors, and Wenger and Kemmler won All-South Region accolades, as well. The All-South Region nod was Wenger's third, making him just the third runner in program history to garner three all-region selections in a career.
Kemmler picked up All-GSC and All-South Region selections again in 2017, and he ran the sixth-fastest 8K (25:12) in program history at that year's edition of the FSU Invitational. Cox also brought home All-GSC and all-region honors, along with some academic accolades. Cox earned a place on the GSC All-Academic Team, and she, William Kemmler, and Devin Montalvo were a part of the USTFCCAA All-Academic Teams as well.
2018 was another strong year for Cox, as she took All-GSC honors for the third time and became the fifth member of the women's program to do so.
West Florida returned to the UWF Cross Country Trails for the first time in a decade in 2019, taking a pair of second-place finishes at the Argonaut Invitational. For Argonauts for the men finished in the top 10 at the meet, and Valeria Villatoro and Alyssa Langston did the same on the women's side.
Before becoming the head coach, Carmichael served as the assistant under former coach John Bergen. Carmichael helped lead the West Florida women’s cross country team to back-to-back GSC titles, and the Argos reached the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history in 2011.
Prior to his time as an assistant coach at UWF, Carmichael competed for the Argonauts under the tutelage of former UWF head coach Matt Dobson from 2002 to 2005. In that time he had one of the most decorated careers in University of West Florida cross country history.
The Tallahassee, Fla. native is only one of three Argonauts to earn four All-GSC honors, including three first team selections. He also earned two selections to the NCAA Division II All-South Region team. Carmichael was recently honored as one of two men's cross country athletes from UWF to earn All-Decade honors by the Gulf South Conference.
Carmichael holds the school record in the 10,000 meters (32:28) on the track and was part of the school record distance medley team. Off the course, Carmichael was named to the 2004 GSC All-Academic Team.
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.
