Former track standout returns to Troy in full-circle moment

Six.   

That’s how many times Alexis Garrett’s last name appears in the Troy University Track and Field record book when you search for it. Two times individually, one indoor and one outdoor, and the top four fastest times in school history as part of the 4x100m shuttle team.  

Was that the expectation coming into Troy?  

“No, to be completely honest, I probably had the slowest times of all the hurdlers that came here,” said Alexis Garrett, now Instructor Garrett in the School of Hospitality, Sports, and Tourism Management, with a laugh. “In my head I was like, ‘As long as you give them what you got, it doesn’t have to be amazing, but maybe they’ll be accepting of that.’  

“I didn’t think that would be who I became, but that consistency and push from my coaches really helped a lot.”  

In her own words, Garrett felt like Troy took a chance on her. Then hurdles coach Reynaldo Radlin, now an associate head coach at George Mason, had taken a chance on her, a fast high schooler but admittedly not a premier athlete in her state.   

Troy Athletics photo

Alexis Garrett poses for a track and field media day photo.

It was a gamble for Garrett too, a first-generation college student who was now moving away to a state in a completely different time zone from the rest of her family.  

“Not only was it ‘Where is Troy?’ it was like, “Where is Troy University?’” Garrett said about her family once they found out she was going there. “I didn’t really see them a lot, but they accepted my decision because they knew that I was doing something that was for the greater good.”  

Six hours.   

About how long it takes to get to Troy from Garrett’s hometown of Union, South Carolina, a tiny little town that sits in the upstate region of The Palmetto State. Because of the location of her school and the nature of recruiting at the time, Garrett had to reach out to schools instead of the other way around.   

“I had to go on websites and fill out their questionnaires,” Garrett said. “Basically, me putting my times in, my information and hope that they would call back.   

“Literally, I went out and found myself a school.”  

Troy was the only school that reached out to Garrett, saying they’d need her to bring her time down a little and that she’d need to get a specific score on her ACTs to be able to give her a scholarship.   

Garrett spent the next summer working and grinding to meet both requirements, slowly polishing the diamond in the rough. The Trojan coaching staff had seen the work too, offering her a scholarship and sending her a national letter of intent to sign.  

“I signed my [letter of intent], nobody knew I signed it,” Garrett said, again with a laugh. “I signed it in the car on Docusign, and I sent it back to him. I didn’t even consult with people, I was like, ‘I got a scholarship.’” 

The match would work, as Garrett became a force, not only on the Troy track and field team, but also as part of the Troy Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She would pick up three Sun Belt Conference medals across her sophomore and junior years while being named a 2018 All-Sun Belt performer.   

In 2020, her senior season, she would become the Troy SAAC President while serving as a national SAAC representative. Going into the Sun Belt Indoor Championships, she was the number one seed for the 60m hurdles.   

Everything was lining up for Garrett, until a Texas State Bobcat fell into her lane.   

“She fell into my hurdle, into my lane, and I tried to avoid her head,” Garrett said, “I went right, but my leg went left. I knew it was over; I heard the leg snap.   

“Although I fell, I still stayed in my lane, and the only way you get disqualified in a track meet is if you go out of your lane, I fell in my lane. I finished the race and I still got a point for my team.”  

Brady Fitch photo

Alexis Garrett recreates her media day photo as an instructor of Troy.

A Troy athletic trainer confirmed the next day that the snap Garrett heard was a torn ACL, sidelining the track star for the remainder of her senior year and making it so she could never run the same again.   

After a fifth year, Garrett expressed interest in joining the Troy coaching staff but was pushed by Coach Marc Davis to explore other opportunities and find herself outside of Troy and track. Her time at Troy had come to an end, or so she thought.   

Six Years.  

The amount of time since her senior year at Troy, where she was nominated for the NCAA Women of the Year award, a national representative as the Troy SAAC president, and her injury.   

Now an instructor while working on her PhD, Garrett comes back to Troy after a grad role at West Virginia and a plethora of jobs in Houston for Rice University. She started out as the assistant director of student-athlete development and letterwinner engagement for the Owls.   

“I wasn’t responsible for [student-athlete] academics, I wasn’t responsible for their sport, I was responsible for everything in between,” Garrett said. “Helping them hone their leadership skills and hone their craft.”  

After that, Garrett transititoned over to fundraising. It may be easier to list what Garrett hadn’t done instead of what she had done for the Owls.   

“If I could keep listing them, I would, but it was literally duties as assigned,” Garrett said. “It helped me expand my skillset pertaining to external work in athletics, but after a while I wanted something different.”  

What was the 2025 homecoming theme? “There’s no place like Troy”, a play on the “There’s no place like home” lines from the Wizard of Oz.   

The theme continues to ring true, as Garrett found. She’d come back to southeast Alabama, this time to teach HSTM 4452: Communications in Hospitality, Sports, Tourism and Events in John Robert Lewis Hall while pursuing her PhD.   

After her time as a student athlete, Garrett has a unique outlook for her students, including the track athletes who sit in the same seats she sat in six years earlier. She understands the best way to get through to them.  

“[I] talk to them like, ‘Hey you play a sport? I played a sport too.’ You can play a sport I played, and I know your coach, so I suggest you get it together,” said Garrett, once again with a laugh.   

Although her track days are now behind her, the bubbly instructor fits right back into Troy so well that you wouldn’t even know she left. Though, if you glance at the record books, she never did.