DEEP RUN — Lisa Smith has a certain way she goes about doing things, and more often than not they’re the recipe for success.
Due to Smith’s program-before-self philosophy her softball team went 22-5 this season and played for a regional championship. With that being said Smith has been named The Free Press’ 2013 Softball Coach of the Year.
Her Blue Devils lost just three regular season games and found themselves two wins from playing for their first fast-pitch state title.
Not bad for a coach that uses the term “head coach” loosely and takes none of the credit.
“Our staff is a full team effort,” Smith said. “We all have our specific duties and we all help each other. No matter what we need we all want what’s best for these girls.”
In fact, it’s Smith’s assistants who get all of the coaching glory, and her players get to bask in the glory of winning.
Mishella Craine, Donald Mooring and Thurman Pate help Smith with the coaching aspect, and it’s the assistants who are more often engaged in the game instruction-wise than Smith. Then it’s up to the players to respond to that instruction, and this season they did.
“It’s not me, it’s all of them — we all have knowledge, and the more knowledge you have is power,” Smith said. “I can’t take credit for all this. It’s the girls, it’s the coaching, it’s just all of us.
“We’re all a big family and we’re all working towards the ultimate goal.”
The last time the Blue Devils reached the round of four in 2010 was the last time Smith was named the area’s coach of the year.
That year Smith had the same philosophy about coaching but approached her team differently than this year’s.
Smith said she coaches each team differently because every team is, well, different. But the end results are usually the same — success.
“You have to do what’s best for the whole team … whatever works best for each individual team,” she said. “That’s the team that you have and you have to mold around it to get the best outcome.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.