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BREAKING: Ole Miss Distance Coach Adam Smith Hired as William & Mary's Next Director of Cross Country and Track & Field
- Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Earlier today, William & Mary announced that they have hired Adam Smith as the program's next Director of Cross Country and Track & Field. Smith had previously overseen the men's and women's middle and long distance events at Ole Miss since he was hired in the summer of 2022.
Smith's move from Ole Miss to William & Mary admittedly comes as a surprise. That, however, is not to say that there aren't good reasons for the change. The Stride Report spoke to Smith over the phone regarding his hiring...
"William & Mary were the ones to reach out," Smith told The Stride Report. "I'm familiar with the area -- I was with Reebok Track Club as a coach in Charlottesville. Plus, we wanted to be closer to family. It began to make sense."
Despite leading the distance events across all three seasons and being dubbed as the "Associate Head Coach" for the Rebels in cross country, Smith will now move into a Director role which gives him full control of a collegiate program.
The William & Mary men and women have been a respectable group within the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) across all three seasons for the last few years. However, they have struggled to become nationally relevant for well over the last decade.
In recent years, the Tribe have consistently finished in the top-half of the team standings at conference championships and have been fairly solid at the regional level during cross country. The William & Mary men finished 12th at the Southeast Regional XC Championships last fall.
Even so, elevating the Tribe men and women to a nationally competitive level will be a hefty task, one that may require far more effective recruiting and potentially more scholarships. And according to Smith, that was seemingly addressed in his conversations with the university...
"They [William & Mary] are putting some resources towards it to be pretty good." Smith explained regarding resources and funding. "The goal coming in is to win conference championships and get back to the NCAA XC Championships,"
And yet, this is a program that has historically been limited with funding for it's track and field and cross country programs. In fact, the Tribe's athletic department initially cut their men's track and field team in September of 2020 (citing the pandemic as the catalyst) before reinstating the program a few months later.
When asked if there were any concerns regarding the recent past, Smith explained that he mentioned that exact topic in his interview wth the university...
"Yeah, that's something I asked about in the interview. That was a really dark time for everyone around the NCAA. But the resources and funding that they are putting into it [the program] now make it really, really safe. I wouldn’t take the job if it wasn't."
Maybe just as importantly, Smith's departure from Ole Miss leaves open a fairly desirable distance coaching role in the SEC.
The Rebel men and women have proven that they can field nationally competitive cross country teams that are capable of qualifying for the NCAA XC Championships. And when it comes to the oval, Ole Miss (specifically the men) have found tremendous success in the middle distances, specifically over 800 meters.
