By Lynn Ramsey - Florida Catholic

FORT LAUDERDALE | Many people know George Smith as the coach and athletic director who put St. Thomas Aquinas’ athletic programs on a national stage. Those who worked with him and played for him saw a loving person who would tell you exactly what he expected, then gave you the resources to surpass those expectations.

Smith said he succeeded because he gave student-athletes two things – love and discipline. He spent 40 years as athletic director building those traits in athletes while building an athletics program that competes for state championships in every sport and national titles in some sports.

In July, he retired and turned over the reins to St. Thomas Aquinas alum Twan Russell. (See related story.)

“I thought about how (football coach) Roger Harriott played for me and Twan played for me also,” Smith said. “They’re like sons to me.”

Smith said the focus always needed to be on the players. “The players were first, and they want to be loved and disciplined,” Smith said. “That was back in the 1970s, 80s, 90s for guys like (NFL Hall of Famer) Mike Irvin and all those for those long years. Nothing’s changed. The only things that have changed now is parents want to get involved for the bad reasons and the Internet. The kids are the same. They want to be loved and disciplined.”

Smith started at St. Thomas Aquinas as a physical-education teacher in 1975. That year, the Raiders had 32 players, but he made it his mission to find more. In his PE class, he saw several athletes who weren’t playing football. “We’re going to run miles every day until some of you guys come out for our football program,” Smith said.

He ended that season with 56 players. This year, the Raiders had 108 players on varsity alone.

That same year, he began going after another goal – helping athletes get a college education. He made a press guide with bios of each of his players and sent it to 600 colleges – from junior colleges to Division I universities. He got responses from 400 schools, so he began compiling a mailing list. After that season, one player signed with LSU and another signed with Kentucky. Other Aquinas players that year went to University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

That was only the beginning. “We’d go to national (coaching) conventions with our projector and cans of film,” Smith said. “We’d put it wherever we could get those coaches to our room. We had sandwiches. That’s how we really got our people out there. Now that’s changed. You have Hudl, which is on the Internet where the kids can make their own highlight reels.”

Those were the humble beginnings of a recruiting machine that now sends dozens of Raiders to play college football every year.

Harriott mentioned that Smith didn’t just support St. Thomas Aquinas players in their quest to play college football. He remembers seeing Smith, after the season, introducing college coaches to opposing team’s players.

“He worked with other high school coaches to ensure their kids went to college,” Harriott said. “When I got older, I decided that’s what I want to do. Now I’m doing it with him. If you let God run your life and control your life, you can do great things if you work for and serve the Lord.”

Smith said he did that to encourage the junior and sophomore teammates of those players to work harder to follow the seniors’ examples “and get in and get a scholarship,” Smith said. “That was the whole thing.”

 

CHAMPIONS ON AND OFF THE FIELD

Smith ultimately built a St. Thomas Aquinas football team that now has a record 13 state championships and two national championships, the last being in 2015. Rocco Casullo coached the Raiders to 2012 and 2014 titles, while current head coach Harriott has led the Raiders to titles in 2016 and 2019-2021.

Russell said Smith was the type of coach whose orders you followed, but also one who molded men. Russell said the longtime Raiders coach cared for him when he had family challenges. Ultimately, Smith challenged his players to focus on the little things.

“I spent more time on little things than big things,” Russell said. “Little things help us accomplish big things. He drilled this on a daily basis. He asked, ‘How are the little things, Twan?’ That’s important.”

Smith was among the early coaches to play teams around the nation to test his athletes. He also worked to get those games on national TV so he could promote his athletes. Now his football teams are a regular on the national networks, and other Aquinas teams regularly play at national tournaments.

According to a 2020 MaxPreps article, the Raiders had 37 players in the NFL.

“We play all over the country,” Smith said. “Very few people, if you’re a high-school guy, have traveled much. But our kids have traveled. I started that in 1990, seeing how we can get our guys on national TV.”

 

SUCCESS IN ALL PROGRAMS

Smith’s tenure as athletic director ran from 1982 to 2021. When he started, he learned that he needed to find out what he didn’t know. So he constantly talked with other coaches on the St. Thomas Aquinas staff to find out what they needed to build successful teams across all sports.

One thing he learned was to hire coaches who want to stay at St. Thomas Aquinas. He talked of other schools in Broward or Dade counties that would hire a football or basketball coach only to have to hire a replacement the next year.

“In the years I was at St. Thomas as AD, we had 114 state championships,” Smith said. “That comes from consistency and coaches who are honest. We were very fortunate to get those types of people.”

“When you talk about Coach Harriott,” he added, “he and I have been very close, like son-father, exactly like Twan Russell. They get it. This is more like family. On the back of our shirts, it says family, faith, tradition. People put that stuff on their shirts. It’s the coaches who talk about it and make it true.”

Not all the coaches were products of the St. Thomas Aquinas system, but they learned quickly. Volleyball coach Lisa Zielinski moved from New York to take a tennis-pro position at Palm Aire Tennis Club. Then she got a call that Aquinas was looking for a physical-education teacher and tennis and volleyball coach. Zielinski had played both sports and loved it. She took the school’s offer in 1988, after only one summer as a tennis pro, then proceeded to build a volleyball program that has won six state championships.

What she saw from Smith was what you see now. “A straight shooter. You could tell he was very genuine,” Zielinski said. “He had a passion for his program at St. Thomas, and he wanted quality people there with him.”

Girls basketball coach Oliver Berens, who led the Raiders to their first title in 2021, also saw the love and admiration Smith had for St. Thomas Aquinas. Smith’s passion to mentor kids and help them succeed radiates into his coaches.

Longtime softball coach Bryan Baucom and longtime Boys Soccer Technical Director John Walsh, both named to the Florida Athletic Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame, were products of the school. Baucom started as a football assistant coach in 1988, then became head softball coach in 1995. The Raiders have won four state softball championships.

Baucom said Smith was a father figure, a status that strengthened when Baucom began coaching. He said Smith taught him to listen to his assistants and let them coach. He also told Baucom to listen to his athletes. “They may be reaching out to you, but they may not know it,” Baucom said. “He’s been good at life lessons beside just being a coach.”

Walsh said that Smith knew little about soccer, yet he supported Walsh and the other soccer coaches. “It’s not his sport, but he appreciates what we add to the program and to the school,” Walsh said. “He can appreciate the type of young men we’re growing.”

 

SPREAD THE FAITH

When it came to living the Catholic faith, many Raiders coaches and players said that Smith let his actions spread the Gospel. Zielinski spoke of the time, back in Smith’s heyday of football coaching, when Fort Myers was the Raiders’ rival. Their head coach Sam Sirianni was sick and eventually died. During Sirianni’s last days, Smith would visit him and was there at his wake to console the family.

“He doesn’t forget people,” Zielinski said. “He maintains that relationship, because he has faith and love for his biggest rival. If that’s not an example of love and faith, I’m not sure what is.”

Meghan King, who pitched the Raiders to two state championships in 2013 and 2014, said that Smith continues to care about Raiders athletes even after they graduate. After she helped Florida State University win the 2018 Women’s College World Series, “he gave me a call and congratulated me and told me how proud he was of me,” King said. “He’s the gel who holds it together, because he cares about every single athlete at St. Thomas.”

Smith said his way of teaching the faith to his players starts with belief in God and respecting others. Even on teams that have student-athletes from other faiths, those two traits still hold.

Smith’s faith also showed when Hurricane Andrew came through in 1992. Miami Southridge, Homestead and Homestead South Dade high schools lost their uniforms, among other things. St. Thomas Aquinas held a fundraiser and gave the schools practice pants and practice jerseys.

Those schools also could not make the playoffs, because the hurricane truncated their schedule. When the Raiders played Fort Myers in the playoffs, Southridge and Homestead’s football teams came out to support the Raiders. “I’ll never forget that,” Smith said.

Several athletes now have children at the school. Amanda Sabo Brooks, a Class of 1995 alumna who played on Zielinski’s volleyball teams, married Class of 1995 diver Kevin Brooks. Their freshman daughter, Malia, now plays for Zielinski.

Brooks said they’re sad that Malia won’t get to experience attending St. Thomas Aquinas under Smith’s wing. But she’s glad that Russell is now putting current athletes under his wing – following the example of a man who welcomed him and his brothers to St. Thomas Aquinas 30 years ago.

“People think that St. Thomas Aquinas is football-centric,” Brooks said. “Coach Smith cares about all athletes regardless of male or female. We were all his children, and he loved us equally. When my daughter went on campus for the first time, he came right up and introduced himself and said, ‘We’ll look after you and take care of you.’ He loved us just as much as his football players.”

Catholic Schools Week: Jan. 30-Feb. 5

The archdiocese’s 62 Catholic schools will be celebrating Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2022. Each school has planned a variety of spiritual and social activities to celebrate the vibrancy of Catholic education. This week is also the start of registration season for Catholic elementary schools. Anyone interested in a Catholic education, should start by visiting the School Finder on the archdiocesan website: https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=school_location.

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