Smith highly regarded as one of the best football coaches in KHSAA history
My Dad had the right idea..."Son, don't miss the wonders that surround you;...try to see life around you, as if you'd just come out a tunnel...
Jefferson Smith, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 1939.
Coach Chuck Smith is not the only “Smith of note” to have carried such a longstanding and proud surname. He just may be among the more successful in the history of KHSAA football to be named “Smith.” There was a guy named “Jefferson Smith,” in the movies, circa 1939, who went to Washington. Our Smith went to Boyle County ultimately. Our version may have felt as naive as the movie version when he first took the reins to a Boyle County program which had enjoyed some historical success but had fallen on tough times. Boyle County enjoyed immeasurable success with Smith at the helm. Man did the former UK linebacker, who joined the Mercer County staff to assist legendary head football coach, Larry French, come a long way from those early days.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Danville, KY: Mr Smith Goest to Washington was an all-time, classic, box office success. This particular Smith was given the name Jefferson.
The film is about a naive, newly appointed U.S. Senator who fights government corruption. It is believed the movie is loosely based on Lewis Foster’s story “The Gentleman from Montana.”
That unpublished work was patterned after the life and career of Montana, U.S. Senator, Burton K. Wheeler. Wheeler had the dubious responsibility of having to investigate the Warren Harding administration.
A daunting task it must have seemed. No less daunting than the task which fell to a former UK linebacker (1978-1980), with limited head coaching experience at the time, when he took the reigns to one of Kentucky’s more successful programs suffering through a decided down turn in fortunes at the time.
Shortly after Smith’s playing career, Smith took a job at Mercer County High. Smith would assist long-time, legendary, head football coach, Larry French.
Smith would then take a head coaching job at Allen County-Scottsville. Smith would hold that job a year and finish a respectable 6-5.
Smith turned around the Eagles program at Campbellsville
Friday Night Fletch
Smith took a job with Campbellsville High. While there, Smith turned around the Eagles’ program. Coach Smith’s efforts, while in Campbellsville, caught the eye of administrators searching for a coach for Boyle County.
Now people love to believe coaches who take jobs like Boyle County just sort of have it “handed to them.” That isn’t true, regardless of the condition of the program. Staying at the top is harder than getting there.
That being said, prior to Smith’s hiring at Boyle County, the Rebels hadn’t had a winning season since 1986. Smith first season on the job was 1992. Smith led the Rebels to what seemed like a “banner year” at the time, posting a 7-4 mark, which snapped the six-year draught and landed the Rebels in the playoffs (2A).
Smith’s second year at Boyle (1993) would be his only losing season of his high school coaching career. Smith’s Rebels would turn in a 2-8 worksheet that year.
Just a few seasons after that 2-8, Smith and the Rebels would reel off an unprecedented five (5) consecutive championships (1999-2003). They would lose only two (2) games over those five seasons.
At the time Smith took the reins at Boyle, the Rebels had won a combined five games in three seasons. Hard to imagine Smith went from those meager beginnings to becoming the first coach, in Kentucky high school football history, to win five straight KHSAA titles.
Smith would extend what seemed a promising start to a career into a 212-44 record at Boyle County. While the head football coach at Boyle, the Rebels would win six (6) KHSAA crowns (1999-2003, 2017) in eight (8) trips to the title game.
Not too shabby at all for a former All-State linebacker from J-Town High. Following Smith’s first stint at Boyle County, Smith took six years away from the high school game to coach linebackers at UK under Rich Brooks and Joker Phillips.
Had Smith not taken off six years to coach linebackers at UK, and another few years to assist Neal Brown at W.Va., what would his career record have been? How many titles would he have ultimately won? It is mind-boggling to contemplate.
As it is, with the breaks included, Smith was a five (5) time, Courier-Journal Coach of the Year (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2019). Smith won the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) High School Coach of the Year in 2003. Smith won the Kentucky Football Coaches Association 4A Coach of the Year in 2019.
That is quite a bit of hardware. An intrepid journalist interviewed Smith about his Boyle County tenure. As you would expect, Smith deflected praise away from himself.
“I was lucky”
Chuck Smith, pulled from prior interview found online
“Fortunately, I had a lot of good support with administrators and was able to get things into place that you need to compete for a state championship. I got the things you needed to do it; but, you also still needed the horses (players). I was lucky.”
Lucky; well, we suppose that is one way to look at it. While some attribute winners’ success to luck, the truth is that winners often create opportunities through hard work, focus, and consistency.
Some elements of success seem like luck, we will grant. However, the most successful individuals demonstrate a certain knack for creating good fortune through hard work and preparation.
You see this on the golf course all the time. When I hit the ball into the woods, I am often stymied; or, worse yet, kicked out of bounds and re-teeing, hitting three. However, the woods seem to throw balls back out into play when hit by low handicappers and/or PGA professionals.
Are they just lucky? Or, do they benefit from striking balls in a way which draws favorable caroms and nets the ball landing away from the obstruction or penalty area?
I am not going to answer this. I believe you already know.
Chuck Smith has a long friendship with David Buchanan extending decades into the past. The two of them have turned their experiences, as coaches, and their affinity, one for the other, into a very popular podcast on Spotify.com.
The show offers a perspective which is both fresh and unique. It isn’t often a show can boast of a dais of KHSAA coaching icons, one a second generation high school coach (Buchanan) and the other a six (6) time KHSAA state titleholder (Smith).
This show can make such a claim. Perhaps both of these guys are just lucky. I believe you know better.
Through it all, Smith has conducted both his personal and professional affairs with integrity. Smith has run his programs integrally, opting for hard work over short cuts and fair play over bending the rules.
Coach Smith has primarily both loved and cared about the young men who played for him and the men who coached with him. Smith spent his coaching career displaying plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and looking out for the other fella, too. Through it all, Chuck Smith, like Jefferson Smith before him (from the movie), never stopped see(ing) life around [him] as if [he]’d just come out a tunnel, ever grateful to see daylight again.
Somehow, though the two obviously never met, we believe Jefferson Smith would have been mighty proud to know Chuck Smith. He might have even claimed him kin. Who could blame him?
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!
© The information contained on this site is the copyrighted intellectual property of KPGFootball. Any unauthorized dissemination of this material without the author’s express written consent is strictly prohibited!
Leave a Reply