By Grant Clark
Eddie Smith viewed it as being equivalent to winning the lottery.
Less than a year removed from college, his baseball playing days seemingly over, Smith was offered the chance to coach.
One dream had already been fulfilled, and now, barely into his 20s, he had a pretty good jump on a second one.
Smith has been a Ram, a Blazer, a Fighting Irish, a Cavalier (a Wahoo amongst the more informed circles), a Bronco, a Golden Domer for a second go-around and finally a Red Devil.
No matter the mascot though, Smith, a 2002 North Thurston graduate, has found success on the baseball diamond wherever he goes.
Two years ago, in his first stint as a head coach, he took over the helm of Lower Columbia baseball and wasted little time returning the Red Devils to national prominence, leading the squad to the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) championship this past season while being named ABCA National Coach of the Year.
The 2015 campaign also saw Lower Columbia, a two-year college located in Longview, capture the West Division Championship and finish the year ranked No. 10 in the nation by Perfect Game, marking the highest end-of-the-year ranking in program history.
In less than nine years as both a head and assistant coach, he has been a part of five conference championships and two College World Series. He has coached 40 players who have been drafted with 20 players drafted in the top 10 rounds and three first-round draft picks. Of those players, eight have been Major Leaguers and one has been a MLB All-Star.
Those figures would sum up a very lucrative coaching career, but Smith’s tenure is really in its infant stages. He turned 31 in February.
“When he played (for me at Notre Dame) it was like having a coach on the field,” said current LSU coach Paul Mainieri prior to Smith joining the Santa Clara coaching staff in 2012. “I always felt Eddie was destined to be an outstanding college baseball coach.”
That’s high praise from an individual who has won more than 1,200 games over his 32-year college coaching career.
But coaching has always been in Smith’s bloodline. His father, Ed Smith, was a long-time coach and athletic director at North Thurston High School.
It was during Smith’s senior year that he helped the Rams cap a perfect 24-0 season by winning the 2002 Class 3A state baseball championship.
However, even though he was named the state student-athlete of the year by the Washington State High School Baseball Coaches Association, during his high school years, he believed his future would take him somewhere else besides baseball.
“I always thought I would play college basketball somewhere,” said Smith, a three-sport athlete at North Thurston. “I wasn’t sure where at the time. I just believed that is what I would end up doing. I’m glad I was wrong.”
His collegiate playing career began at Centralia Community College where he was an all-Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges selection and helped the Blazers set a school record for wins in 2004.
“It was the perfect place for me,” Smith said about his two years in Centralia. “I loved the blue-collar mentality of community college baseball. You have to work for everything. It made me grow up really quick.”
From there Smith made quite the leap, going from Pacific Northwest community college baseball to attending Notre Dame, a university his grandfather also attended.
“That was just an unbelievable opportunity,” Smith said about his time in South Bend. “Academically, you walk around and you are simply surrounded by all these brilliant people. It’s inspiring. Baseball-wise it was just a dream come true.”
Smith would earn a spot on the roster as an infielder after walking on. He played two seasons under Mainieri, 2005 and 2006, helping the Irish to a pair of Big East championships and two berths to the NCAA regionals.
Smith graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 2006. Mainieri exited Notre Dame around the same time as well, taking over an LSU program that he would later guide to the national championship in 2009.
When a position opened up in 2007 at the University of Virginia, it was Mainieri who recommended Smith to Cavaliers head coach Brian O’ Connor, who served as pitching coach under Mainieri at Notre Dame from 1995 to 2001.
“I was 22 and a year out of college. I don’t get this position if it’s 10 years later because of where (O’ Connor) has taken the program,” Smith said “Saying the program was mediocre before he took over would be a nice way to put it.”
In his five years at Virginia, the Cavaliers won a trio of ACC titles and made two College World Series appearances, winning more games than any other program in the nation over that span.
“Those first couple years I just had my head down and tried to learn as much as I could,” Smith said. “(O’ Connor) is about as sharp as it gets. I just decided to shut up and listen. I was sponge.”
Coincidentally, O’ Connor, whose Virginia team won the College World Series this year, was named ABPA Division I national coach of the year in 2015 to join his former protégé on the list honorees.
One-year assistant coaching stops at Santa Clara (2012) and Notre Dame (2013) followed before Smith accepted his first head coaching position at Lower Columbia.
Smith has played in Russia and Canada and has coached in Aruba, Japan and the Dominican Republic, but it was an easy choice to return to his home state.
In two seasons with the Red Devils, he has a combined record of 71-25 with 14 of his players receiving Division I opportunities.
“We really have two types of players come here. We have guys just out of high school and players who were at other programs where it just didn’t work out for them. Both types are looking to move forward,” said Smith, who in addition to hitting the recruiting trail this summer will also join the coaching staff for the 17U US National Team Development Program for USA Baseball.
“It’s very rare for a freshman to get playing time at a four-year university, summarized Smith. “Here they can come and play immediately. And the facilities are unbelievable. It rivals some Division I programs. I played in this conference. I loved playing in it. It’s just a great fit for me.”
