RCW: From the office of ... Megan Smith

Inaugural Season Brick from Western Carolina Softball
Head softball coach Megan Smith reflects on her first Division I head coaching job and what it meant to her.

“That was my first Division I head coaching job and I started the program there.  I was young and didn’t really know what I was doing. And now, 10 years later, it’s such a special thing to me. The brick and all the memorabilia from that (first) year is a constant reminder of hard work and what it can do. That brick is one of the bricks from building the new stadium there. That year is probably my most exciting year as a coach and will always be. I don’t think anything we ever top it. I spent a year recruiting and starting the program from scratch. That first season we did a lot of really great things. We were conference champions our first year, I was coach of the year and we had about 85 percent of the players of the week or players of the month. We had the pitcher of the year, the freshman of the year and it was just a storybook season, which for being the first year ever at such a small rural school, a mountain school in North Carolina, was a shock to everybody. We won our first game, the first pitch was a strike, we struck out the first batter and our first hit was a home-run. It just couldn’t get any better than that and the season just continued like that. Anything in here from Western Carolina is special. I only spent that one year coaching there and then moved on to LSU. But that will always be the most special year ever in my career.”