After just one year of coaching and teaching, Nick Smith had a decision to make.
Smith, 24, landed at Lonoke last summer as an assistant junior high football and assistant baseball coach for the Jackrabbits. When Darrick Lowery resigned in April, Smith took the reins of the baseball program and led the Jackrabbits to a third-place finish in the Class 4A East Regional and an appearance in the Class 4A State Tournament.
Lowery’s unexpected exit meant openings for the head position in baseball and junior high football for 2016-17.
“I knew with the talent we had coming back with baseball, as well as our tradition, that there was going to be a long list of applicants, and there would be some really good coaches apply for that, and I felt like I needed to jump into that junior high role,” Smith said. “I had been with the eighth graders since January, and I took over (with them) full bore in April.
“I just felt the Lord was pulling me to that junior high team, that it was my time to take over that role, and I felt that I wasn’t being pulled to that baseball role. Not yet. I could eventually see myself as a head baseball coach, but at this point, the head football position was what I wanted and needed. I think it’s going to be a great experience for me.”
His hiring became official two weeks ago.
“I’m very thrilled and very excited for this opportunity,” Smith said. “My ultimate goal is to be a head football coach, and this is a step in that direction. The seventh graders were undefeated last year, and I bonded with the eighth graders in the offseason. We’re already working hard for a good year.”
Outgoing Lonoke athletic director Nathan Morris said Smith’s performance in the interim head baseball role was impressive.
“Nick showed a tremendous amount of professionalism this year for such a young coach, and that really stuck with the folks on the committee,” he said. “I’m real excited about him.”
Coaching is in Smith’s blood.
He grew up in Prescott, where his dad, Greg Smith, was head football coach of the Curley Wolves for 10 years. Greg Smith has been the head coach at Dover since 2011.
“That’s a real compliment when your son chooses the profession that you’ve also chosen,” Greg Smith said of his oldest child and first of three sons. “It’s just been a good thing for him as it was for me. For both of us, it’s a calling and not a choice to be a teacher or coach, and he fell where he was supposed to fall. He’s already gained some respect and trust from the administration, and it’s exciting to see his career get started and take off.”
Smith said he knew early on that he wanted to teach and coach. He is certified in middle school history, health and physical education and teaches ninth grade American history.
“My dad has been coaching for 25 years, and that’s all I knew as a kid,” he said. “I’ve been around coaches, in that environment, my whole life. I loved sports and knew from an early age that’s what I wanted to do — to get paid to do something I loved.”
Smith played offensive line for the football Curley Wolves and first base/pitcher for the Prescott baseball team, graduating in 2009. He played a year of college football at East Texas Baptist before transferring to Henderson State, where he graduated.
“After that year at ETBU, he said, ‘Dad, I’m ready to go on and get my education and start my ministry,’” Greg Smith said. “We don’t use the word ‘career’ very often. We see it as a ministry, and it’s neat to see his ministry start developing.”
Nick Smith’s first job out of HSU was at Lonoke.
“It was great,” he said. “Being my first year, I didn’t know what to expect, but I learned a lot, especially from teaching, but the kids showed me a lot, too,” he said. “If you sit down and watch and listen, they can show you a lot. This year was a learning experience all around, from coaching to teaching.”
He said in taking over the baseball reins near the end of the regular season, he learned organization the hard way.
“When you’re given 30 kids, and you see the regional tournament in your sights and the state tournament, there’s a lot of organization that comes with that — what you’re doing with the kids in practice, planning trips and games,” he said.
The junior football Jackrabbits finished 3-5 last year.
“We’ve got our sights set very high,” Smith said of 2016. “You aim to be undefeated, but we’re going to attack and go after that (4A-2) conference championship. That’s our main goal.”
Doug Bost, head coach of the senior high squad, said he was very excited for and about Smith.
“He comes from a football family; he has been around it his whole life,” Bost said. “He is committed to helping our football program, 7-12, being the best it can be.”
Smith recently celebrated his second wedding anniversary with his high school sweetheart, Trisha, whom he has known since they were 12. She is in her fourth year of pharmacy school at UAMS.
“She graduates next May, then I can retire and she can make all the money,” he said, chuckling.
Somehow, we doubt that will happen.
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