An Interview with Hough's Beloved and Recently Retired Coach Smith

August 27th, 2024- Whittier Henry

Bill Belicheck. Mike Krzyzewski. Pep Guardiola. Red Aurebach. Bear Byrant. David Smith. One of these men is not like the others. Out of all of those legendary coaches, Smith boasts the highest winning percentage...

David Smith served as the head coach for both the men’s and women’s soccer teams here at Hough High School for the past 15 years before retiring this summer. He was born and raised in East Charlotte, but due to busing regulations as a result of Swann v CMS, he graduated 10 miles from home, at West Charlotte High School in 1988. He attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington from 1988 to 1992, the same university his son graduated from this summer. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Coach Smith following his departure from Hough. Across the entire program, he finished with a remarkable 515-102-31 regular season record, won 24 conference championships, was the 2014 North Carolina 4A State Coach of the Year, was inducted into the NCSCA Hall of Honor in 2022, and appeared in five state championships, bringing home two on the girls’ side. Despite the numerous accomplishments and awards, I quickly learned Coach Smith was about so much more than winning. I am one of many students at Hough who played under Coach Smith, and there are many more who were taught by Mr. Smith, so I was excited to put the full picture together. We talked about everything from mentors, favorite seasons, tactics, his bizarre reunion with Coach Kutcher that led to a decade-long partnership, and his overall legacy. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. 

Me: “Did you have a certain teacher that was a strong influence and made you want to start teaching?”

Smith: “Yeah, I had a few. Dr. John Kaiser, he was my senior English teacher at West Charlotte, he was amazing. He was professor at the University Alabama and moved back in the 80s and started teaching at West Charlotte. I even turned to him in college for help on research papers and other things and stayed in touch with him for years to come, he was a big one. I had some history teachers at West Charlotte who were amazing. Ms. Thornton, our volleyball coach at Hough, her dad Ed was a psychology teacher of mine, he was awesome. So yeah some really good teachers who showed me how teaching, coaching, interacting with you guys, interacting with students should be done. Being there to offer as much as you can to the students, so I had some really good role models in that regard.”

Me: “So you graduated from UNCW and started teaching in ‘92, you first taught at a middle school?”

Smith: “Yeah I started at Ranson Middle School for 5 years, and that was where I met Kutcher (Smith’s Assistant Coach and now Head Coach at Hough), when I taught and coached him, and our story began. He was a punk back then, cocky little guy. I did 5 years at Ranson and then did 13 years at Chambers, which was Vance when I worked there, and then came to Hough when it opened in 2010.”

Me: “You mentioned coaching Coach Kutcher, could you speak on your relationship with Kutcher and what was it like going from teaching this little kid to him becoming your assistant coach. How did that come about?”

Smith: “Yeah, it’s a great story that we love to share. When Hough opened, I got hired in February of 2010, and then Hough opened that August. I lived out in the Skybrook Neighborhood at that time, and Kutcher was living in Highland Creek. I was at a BP Station over there getting gas and out comes Kutcher from the gas station. We hadn’t talked for a while but ran into each other and just started talking. He had kinda been helping out at North Meck, where he graduated, and that’s how we had kinda been keeping in touch, and I was like, ‘Hey, I just got hired as the coach at Hough. If you’re interested, you want to come over and help out?’ I had a JV coach already, the guy that they had hired to be the first lacrosse coach at Hough, he was my JV coach the first year, so Kutcher was mainly varsity assistant that first year and then he took over as JV Coach after that. He then started subbing (at Hough), he was mainly working in real estate at the time, but he started subbing and then eventually became a teacher at Hough and the rest is history. Obviously we’re more than just co-workers, I mean he’s one of my best friends. I’m excited for him and for the future of Hough soccer. I think he’s gonna do a great job, and he’s more than ready to do it. I tried to give him more and more responsibilities these last two or three years because I kinda knew the end was coming.”

Me: “What was it like building a program?”

Smith: “It was really cool, I had some experience at Chambers because I helped open that school as well. The soccer wasn’t as strong there, we made the playoffs every year but we didn’t go very far. The talent wasn’t as deep. I knew coming into Hough, I wanted the opportunity to coach and teach at a school with the soccer talent at Hough. That first year especially trying to get people from Hopewell and North Meck to buy in to being a Hough Husky, it was tougher for some people than it was for others, but I think our soccer players really bought in from the start. Our first year with the boys we made it to the State Semi-finals, same with the girls, we lost on penalty kicks in the semi-finals with the girls. Second year we won the state championship with the girls. I think getting the players to buy in right from the start was huge. For me, from a personal and professional standpoint, I just wanted that opportunity to have the same level of talent as other schools and give people that chance to show what they could do on the field and I think that was big, to try and showcase that talent because the one thing I always tried to do in my coaching career was try to make it about you guys, make it about the players, and not about me. I think that made it easier because we were trying really to showcase the players. We’ve had great student support as well which has always made it fun.”

Me: “I’ve asked around about what people would ask you if they could and I have to ask the question, what was your favorite season for boys and girls?”

Boys:

Smith: “I guess now that I’m retired I can answer this without hurting people's feelings. 2017 and the fall of 2021. 21’ was when we went to the state championship and lost to New Hanover. We started off struggling that year, we struggled against Myers Park early in the season, but at the end of the season we got hot. And the Providence game in the quarterfinals, to me will probably go down as my favorite non-state championship game in my coaching career because it started raining at halftime, Nic Patrignani got two yellow cards so he got a red card and was sent off, so we’re playing a man down. We’re down 2 nothing in the second half when Eugenio scored a free kick and then a breakaway and all of sudden it’s 2-2. Then he scored again with 4 minutes left to take the lead, which was just insane. Mr. Connolly drove a bus down with 40 or 50 students to that game, so it was extra exciting. It was cool because the network camera at Providence didn’t work that night, nobody was filming it because it was pouring down rain, so it’s one of those throwback games where it’s not on any video, there’s no social media videos of it, so if you weren’t there you didn’t see it. We beat South Meck the next game in the semis at home, that crowd was unreal.” 

Girls:

Smith: “That first state championship game we were down one nothing with 11 minutes to go and scored two goals in the last 11 minutes to beat Green Hope, they were number one in the country. We were number two in the country. I feel like that would probably be my favorite year.”

Me:  “I’m curious, being a coach and a teacher, what were some skills or lessons that you learned on the field or learned in the classroom that you brought to the other one?”

Smith: “I feel like some of the best teachers are coaches because, coaching and sports in general, you can plan out, here’s how we want to do things, it’s not always going to go to plan because it’s not scripted. I can walk in there with the greatest civics lesson ever, ‘we’re going to learn about the House of Representatives and the Senate today’ and then here’s Whittier in the back room being a jerk and throwing a monkey wrench into my plan, you’ve got to be able to think on your feet. I feel like as a coach that’s the one thing that helped me in the classroom is being able to roll with the punches, go with the flow if you will, and not always get caught up in like here’s how I scripted it and I'm going to do it this way no matter what. You’re trying to adjust and not every team’s the same, not every player is the same, and I think you have to realize that with your students, so you may learn differently than the kid next to you and the kid behind you. I feel like as a teacher, that helped me the most in the classroom and then on the field, I feel like, being a successful teacher being able to communicate with your players, and like I said, not everybody’s going to respond the same way. I may be able to chew you out but then this kid over here, I’ve got to kind of treat him a little bit differently because he doesn’t respond to criticism or yelling, so you kind of got to do it differently. So I think being able to combine those two and use the things you learn from each one. I think that’s a great question, I always feel like teachers that don’t ever coach, they need to spend a day or two out at the field or in the gym seeing what coaches go through and deal with because people think that they’re just slack teachers or whatever which is not the case. I think we just make it look easier because we’re able to kind of bring those traits into the classroom.”

Me: “Imagine you were able to sit down with Coach Smith as he starts his Hough career, and you were able to tell him everything that happens in his coaching career, would he be pleased with how it all played out?”

Smith: “Oh, that’s a fantastic question. Like I said earlier, when I got the job in the spring of 2010 I really just wanted a chance to be able to coach at a school that had good soccer talent. Those first few years especially with the girls, the runs. We made something that validated what I had hoped to accomplish, and then lately, especially with the boys, we went to two State Championships. Then we went to six or seven regional finals with the boys. I feel looking at it now, I do feel like it’s been a success. I mean, do I wish we could have won those two state championship games with the boys and the one we lost with the girls, of course, but to be able to go to five state championships over these 14 years, I think was great. The wins and losses are big, but the fact that I’m still in touch with so many players that I coached years ago, I’m still in touch with several guys and a couple of the girls from those first teams in 2010 which is pretty cool because they’re all pushing 30 now which is crazy. And then Kutcher of course is in his early 40s and I’ve known him since he was in seventh grade. The wins and losses are important but I feel like the relationships as well make me look back on me and it was successful.”

Me: “Was there a team or season that you just really felt like this is the year, like it should have worked out and for whatever reason, the team that got away?”

Smith: “That’s tough. I mean this year’s girls’ team was legit damn good, we had no business losing to Myers Park, and I think the girls kind of see that as well. And I feel like we get past that game, who knows what would have happened? I feel like this team was really special. Honestly, I mean the two years before I mean gosh, the two three years before that, we lost to AK twice and Myers Park, and  two of those three years, those teams went on to win the state championship. We had the year we lost to Reagan, and then Porter Ridge, and the boys in the semifinals, and you know I feel like both those teams, you know, we could have we could have won the state championship that year if we made it, past that semifinal game.”

Me: “When I played for you, the philosophy was always to let them possess if they want and to jump on their mistakes, and when we do have it, get it up to our attackers quickly. Was that always your coaching philosophy?”

Smith: “No it wasn’t actually, early on it was more about keeping the ball and those kinds of things. It was kind of funny in in 2012, the first state championship team with the girls, I was talking Bucky McCarley, the head coach at Myers Park. We’re really good friends as well, and we were talking during that season and I was like, ‘Okay, you’ve seen us play.' We would always do this with each other, like, I would say, 'okay, what if you were coaching my team? What would you do differently that we're not doing right now?' And he said, 'You guys like the ball too much.’ He said, ‘You’re too talented up top. Go score two or three goals and then keep the ball. Put people away early and then you can take the air out of the ball.' And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s okay, I like that.’ So midway through that first that 2012 season we started adapting that philosophy. We started being more attack-minded early, jumping on people right away, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but we didn't lose any games that year. So it kind of flipped a switch and I saw the girls really enjoyed it, so we started doing the same thing that fall with the boys. Just kind of being like, 'Hey, most high school teams are going to have one maybe two defenders that they're kind of trying to hide and they might not be that strong, so we want to try to exploit that, take advantage of it, put people on the back foot if we can.' When you have people like a Capy (Suarez), you want to take advantage of that. High school is different than club soccer because you are trying to win every game, so you have to kind of adapt to that. So I think that back in that 2012 season, that's kind of when things flipped.”

Me: “Say I’m wrapping up this piece and I’m saying Coach Smith leads a legacy of [blank] here at Hough, what would you want that line to be like? What would you want to be remembered by?”

Smith: “I've thought about that a lot these last few weeks, and I've been really touched by messages that I got from players and students. It was probably even cooler getting messages from students that I only taught. One thing that I love to be remembered by, for my 14 years at Hough, and really my 32 years of teaching. It's just being a teacher and a coach that cared. I mentioned the people that influenced me at West Charlotte as teachers; they always, they all cared. They obviously had their own lives and they had things they were dealing with, but you could tell that they cared about me and my fellow classmates. I would like for my legacy to be that I cared. My students and my players knew that I cared about them, and that was one of the hardest parts about making this decision to retire. I knew it was going to happen eventually. My son was really helpful in me making the decision. I kind of had to be selfish and do what I thought was financially in my best interest. I think just knowing or having my students and players know that I cared, we have all kinds of different students at Hough, and to be able to get feedback from all kinds of different students, and they all would say the same thing, that they knew that I cared about them, not just that they learned civics. To me that's something I'm very proud of, and I hope that can kind of be my legacy as a teacher and as a coach.  I've tried to make sure everybody knows, I love Hough, and I'm leaving on the best of circumstances. I had a great you know men's season last year, all season this year my classes were amazing. I'm leaving it kind of on top and going onto the next level.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there was somehow any doubt as to whether Coach Smith cared, not only was he willing to hop on a 45-minute Zoom call with me in the middle of July, but after the interview he asked me questions about my life and the upcoming school year with impressive recollection of personal facts. And that friendship with Coach Kutcher? In Coach Kutcher’s first-ever game as the Hough Varsity Coach, Coach Smith made the drive up from Charlotte to cheer on his best friend as he started his tenure with a 4-0 victory. I challenge you to find a man who cares more than David Smith, until then, consider the legacy cemented.