After 19 years at the helm, Willie Smith stepped aside this spring as the Coupeville High School varsity baseball coach. His impact on the community, however, went far beyond the white lines of Robert Sherman Field.

Smith started his coaching career at his alma mater, Sequim, as the head baseball coach in 1993 and 1994.

After moving to Coupeville, he was the varsity girls basketball coach from 1994-2000 and an assistant football coach for 17 years (1995-2011), which included a three-year stint as the head middle school coach.

He became Coupeville’s varsity baseball coach in 1997.

Smith said he chose to step down because “(I) don’t feel like I can give the attention, energy and motivation that is needed to run a program.”
“I don’t want to cheat the kids, and I just felt like if I was to continue, I would be doing that,” he added. “It would be a bit hypocritical of me to ask the kids to be dedicated, focused and energized when I couldn’t do the same.”

Smith coached high school athletes for 22 years, but what he did for the children of Coupeville before they reached high school may be his lasting legacy.

Accomplishments

Asked to name his greatest accomplishment as a coach, Smith said, “I’ve never really thought about this question, quite honestly.” He settled on the creation of the youth girls basketball program.

“When we got here, girls playing in the local youth program was not very common,” he said. “So, we started the program with the high school team as their coaches and it created a connection with the younger kids and the high school program that, at least through my tenure as coach, created a lot of excitement.

“Along those same lines would be the starting of our Little League program for both baseball and softball. Myself and (wife) Cherie, with about three to four other parents, jump-started this program, and it continues to produce good-quality players for both programs.”

Another accomplishment, Smith said, was rebuilding the girls basketball program with Cherie and assistant coach Danny Ochoa.

Under his watch, the team earned the Wolves’ first state tournament win in any girls sport and developed into one of Coupeville High School’s most successful programs.

Proud moments

The list of his proudest moments as a coach is lengthy, but at the top was the opportunity to coach his sons James and Ian in football and baseball.

“Not many parents get to experience the exhilaration of having a hand in all of the prep work — practices, summer work, tourneys, etc. — and then see their kids perform at a really high level,” Smith said. “It is pretty special.”

As examples, he noted the time James “refused to allow us to lose and put the team on his shoulders” in a football playoff win over Friday Harbor, and Ian, as a freshman, driving in the winning run to secure a district baseball title.

Another on the list is the 2000 girls basketball team with its tough, defensive-minded, team-oriented attitude.

“It was a team of stars, but none who acted like it, and a team that relished rising to the challenge,” he said.

Watching the team win a berth in the state tournament on a last-second basket by Tina Lyness “is one of my proudest moments as a coach just because of how we got there and what our team endured through the whole season.”

A third item of the list was the opening playoff win in the 2014 baseball tournament. The seniors on the team had fought through tough seasons in all sports through their careers, and Smith realized how special the victory was when Jake Tumblin said, “This is my first playoff win in high school, coach.”

The next game, Tumblin hit a tie-breaking home run.

“To be able to be a part of something like that is special.”

Highlights

Over the years, Smith’s teams won league and district titles and qualified for state five times, but the highlights, he said, were watching athletes having “defining moments.”

Those include senior Zach McCormick getting three hits and driving in three runs against La Conner; senior Drew Chan driving in the winning run to beat Granite Falls; Ryan Oliver getting a game-winning hit after being pinch hit for most of the season (“He looked at me and guaranteed a hit.”); and Jamie Rasmussen “sitting on the free throw line with no time left on the clock and we’re down by one, missing the front end, Murphy freezing her (with a timeout) and then going out and sinking the free throw to put is into overtime.”

Smith said he could rattle off dozens more examples, adding, “That’s why I coached, to get kids to see how good they can be and to get them to go places where they may have never gone if they never were pushed to do so.”

Lessons

He said he wanted his athletes to understand that working hard shouldn’t be an option but an important part of their lives.

Smith also wanted his players to realize “life is way too short to take yourself too seriously, so make sure you enjoy yourself a bit.”

Smith named 10 coaches who helped mold him, and lauded the help of assistants Ochoa, Garrett Arnold, Larry Kimball, Ryan O’Keefe, Chris Chan, Chris Tumblin, Chris Smith and Mike Etzell, noting most were volunteers.

“My best assistant, of course, was my wife Cherie, who got to deal with all the post-game losses and frustrations, and who taught me to slow down and … enjoy my coaching,” he said.