The Browns on Tuesday announced the arrival of six coaches from various levels who will participate in the final three weeks of the team's offseason program in conjunction with the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship.
The fellowship provides coaches the opportunity to observe, participate, gain experience and ultimately land full-time positions in the NFL via access to teams' offseason programs and training camps. Applicants for the fellowship must either have NFL experience or coaching experience at the high school, college or other league level (CFL, XFL, etc.).
"The Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship is the type of program that can be very impactful to the coaching hiring process," Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "There are some really good football coaches in the NFL that are here after their first exposure came as a Walsh Fellow and we are pleased to have six fellows join us this summer. Diversity is always going to be an important component of what we do in our organization because it helps us become a better organization. This will be a great experience for our fellows, learning is an important part of this program and our coaching staff will be good resources for them."
The following six began their work with the Browns on Monday.
Offense
Chris Cook - Cook is entering his second season as the tight ends coach at the University of Akron. He broke into college coaching as an offensive quality control coach in 2016 at East Carolina University and served as a tight ends/offensive tackles coach at Chattanooga. Cook played collegiately at Chattanooga and Georgetown College and played professionally for two seasons in the Arena Football League. He participated in the Bill Walsh Fellowship program the past two years with the Atlanta Falcons.
Angela Baker - Baker has been a women's professional football player for the past eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Passion. She won a gold medal with the Women's National American Football team in 2017. Baker, who is currently pursuing a degree in coaching management, has participated in the women's training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the past three years.
Leonard Hankerson – Hankerson is entering his second season as the wide receivers coach at Stephen F. Austin. He previously coached wide receivers and served as a graduate assistant at UMass. Hankerson, a standout player at the University of Miami who also coached for a season at Trinity High School in Florida, played in the NFL for five seasons.
Defense
Ashton Grant - Grant is entering his second season as a quality control coach at the College of the Holy Cross. He played in the Alliance of American Football with the Salt Lake Stallions and also participated in training camps with the Chiefs, Bears and Raiders. Grant was a standout wide receiver at Assumption College, where he was a captain and accumulated numerous accolades.
Elena Grigelevich - Grigelevich is currently pursuing a master's degree at Bryant University, where she also served as a coaching analyst. She helped the coaching staff with opponent breakdowns, patterns and analytics while also founding and creating the "Think Tank," a data analytics program implemented by the football program. Grigelevich also helped with opponent breakdowns and in-game charting to assist with in-game adjustments.
Ray Smith, Jr. - Smith is entering his fourth season at Southeast Missouri State and his first as the team's Pass Game Coordinator. He also coaches the defensive backs. Previously, Smith was the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at Southwest Baptist University. He also has experience at the high school level, coaching three seasons at Schaumburg High School in Illinois. Smith played collegiately at Northern Illinois and was named first-team All-MAC in 2005.
