New Cedarville women’s coach promises to carry the ‘torch of excellence’

Among the people he praised were his two predecessors at Cedarville: Hoffman, who spent five seasons as head coach; and Kirk Martin, who coached 15 seasons.

“I can’t say enough,” Smith said. “The culture they created here wonderful. I wouldn’t be here without it. It is a very attractive position because of the culture. I made a commitment to coach Hoffman that I would honor her players and give you all my very best. So I will live up to that commitment to her. I’m here to just carry the torch of the excellence.”

Cedarville President Thomas White said the school was looking for three things in hiring a new coach: “a love for the Lord, a love for his family and a love for basketball.”

Smith fit that description perfectly as White discovered during the interview process.

“As we talked, he began quoting various parts of verses of scripture,” White said. “It just came out naturally in conversation. That’s what we’re looking for, somebody that loves the Lord, that loves his word and that naturally integrates that into life.”

Smith spent the last 10 seasons as the head coach at Bryan College, a NAIA school in Dayton, Tenn. He finished his tenure as the school’s all-time winningest coach, producing a record of 219-85, including a 157-49 mark in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. He won the league’s coach of the year award the last three years when his teams were 64-0 in conference play and 78-7 overall.

Smith inherits a program that was 106-38 and won three Great Midwest Athletic Conference titles in the last five years under Hoffman.

A 2004 graduate of Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Mo., Smith has a degree in Christian Ministry. He and his wife, Tina, have five children.

Smith didn’t forget to thank his wife in his speech.

“I told her a long time ago, ‘You’re crazy for marrying a basketball coach,’” Smith said, “but she’s come along on the journey with me. I know everybody knows me as coach Smith, but that title will go away quickly once my family gets here because I know I’ll be called Tina’s husband. Most of the time the rest of the way, that’s just the way it is. That’s how social and now interactive she’s going to be in this community.”