Junior sprinter Jade Brown transferred to Florida during the 2025 summer portal window, a decision that centered around more than just the school. For Brown, Florida offered a chance to compete for a prestigious program and return home to the state she grew up in.
In her freshman and sophomore seasons, Brown attended the University of Arizona, but she was raised in Coral Springs, Florida, where she attended J.P. Taravella High School.
Since becoming a Gator, Brown has enjoyed living closer to her siblings and cousins, as well as her track coaches from high school, Seitu Smith and Dawn Spann — two people Brown said grew to be a part of her family as she became a prolific high school athlete.
It was in high school that Brown discovered her love for track. Smith, a math teacher and track coach at J.P. Taravella High School, knew quickly what he had with Brown.
“From the first time I saw her and how she ran, I knew she had a lot of potential,” Smith said.
He quickly recognized Brown was powerful, with a build suited for a future in running. However, her form on starts was lackluster, with a strong first step that lacked technique, Smith said.
Smith helped her realize her potential. Her times in the 100-meter jumped from 13 seconds down all the way to a school-record 11.53 seconds in four years.
Brown helped lead her high school to a city championship in 2023, along with a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash during the Florida state championship the same year.
Brown and Smith have stayed close ever since, talking nearly every week, Smith said.
“She is a blessing,” Smith said. “I love that girl like she’s my only child.”
Coach Spann was Brown's club coach during high school for the Plantation H.E.A.T. Track club in Coral Springs.
Early on, Brown and Spann butted heads, Spann said, because she was a tough coach who believed in training long to short distances to avoid injuries. Brown pulled her hamstring during her freshman year, preventing her from finishing the season. Spann wanted to keep that from happening again, she said.
Brown, a high school sophomore at the time, was a 100-meter runner who didn’t initially believe she should train over 200 meters. Once, after Brown ran a bad time during a 400-meter, Spann said she pushed her to work or not come back.
That was Brown’s turning point. She went to work. In the summer of 2021, her 100-meter time improved from a 12.1 to an 11.7, while her 200-meter time improved from 25.3 to 24.8.
As her times progressed, the coach and athlete began to click. By the end of high school, Brown had etched her name into school history forever. Spann even coined a nickname for Brown: Grumble.
Brown was a hardheaded athlete early in her career, often “grumbling” back to coach Spann, a trait Spann encouraged.
“You’re gonna make noise, and you’re going to transfer what you complained about into the power of your event, and they’re going to see you,” Spann said.
As Brown grumbled her way to success, her relationship with coach Spann grew with it. Their bond began to transcend the track. Spann even flew to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with Brown in 2023, when she was unable to fly back to Florida.
At the University of Arizona, Brown continued to stand out. In her freshman year, she broke the 100-meter school record for the freshmen category with a time of 11.53, which also ranked fifth in school history in the event. By her sophomore year, she had set the indoor 60-meter record and the outdoor 100-meter record.
After sustaining an injury during the 2025 indoor season, Brown said, she lost confidence in her running, entering meets with little expectation to meet her standard.
“It would be more of a disservice to myself to expect something too high knowing it’s not going to happen,” Brown said. “I didn’t really go into the meets with any goals or anything.”
Her lack of confidence played into her decision to transfer, she said, and when she entered the portal, Florida came calling.
Brown said the opportunity to come home and UF’s extensive support staff stood out most to her when entering the portal.
“It can make the biggest difference,” Brown said. “Having multiple eyes on you, having your family around, you have support in all the places you need.”
Since beginning the 2026 indoor season with the Gators, Brown has regained her confidence and is grumbling again.
In her Gator debut, Brown opened the year with a first-place finish in the women’s 60-meter dash, with her 7.32 time beating out runners from Florida State, Central Florida and Florida A&M during the Jimmy Carnes Invitational.
Going forward, Brown’s goals for the season — and her Gator career — don’t come with any shortage in confidence.
“I want to run fast, and I want to get some school records,” Brown said. “I got some school records at my old school, but I plan to have my name in that book at this school as well.”
Brown's next chance to cement her name in the Gator record books will come when the Gators compete in the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 26 in College Station, Texas.
Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow him on X @LoganDMcBride.
Logan McBride is a journalism junior and a Spring 2026 track and field reporter. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows or playing basketball at Southwest Rec. He is also a big football fan and will die for Dak Prescott.
