You can think of him as the puzzle master. Hundreds of moving pieces make up the sports and activities department at Englewood High School and Nate Smith (and a few talented staff) work to keep each piece in place. Smith is the Englewood High School Athletic Director. Over the course of his time at EHS, The Pirateer has never had a chance to sit down with this busy man to find out more about him, his life in sports and why he loves his job. 

Q: What is your background?

A: “Well, my job involves two different things and backgrounds. Obviously as athletic director, you have to have a background in sports. I have a background in playing and coaching sports at the high school level, played some at the college level. So you got to have some expertise there. Then there’s also the assistant principal side of my job where you have to have a background in teaching and instruction.”

Q: What sports did you play? 

A: “In high school, I participated in football, basketball, baseball, track and wrestling at various points. In college, I played college football. Then as a coach, I’ve coached football, basketball, baseball and softball. Everything from ninth grade coach to a varsity head coach. So I’ve done a little bit over the course of 21 different seasons of sports. I think I’m probably one of the most experienced in the state right now.”

Q: Why is it important for students to participate in sports?

A: “I think it’s good for them to learn, learn to push themselves learn to work together as a team, really all those skills, we call them soft skills, right? You don’t always learn teamwork in the the classroom, in sports, you learn the ability to work hard and ability to take feedback, ability to perform under pressure. Those are all the skills that are going to help you succeed in

life. Coaches do a great job of pushing kids to be the best they can be.”

Q: Spring sports has Tennis, Girls soccer, Track and Baseball. There was Lacrosse in past years and boys tennis. Will we ever be able to field more teams? 

A: “Well, yeah, we’re always assessing what we’re adding. We added girls wrestling this year and we are looking to expand right now. We’re doing some some experimenting here and trying out golf again, we haven’t had a golf team for a number of years, but we have some student interest in that. So we’re looking at that. We need a have a couple different things in order to add a sport, one we have to have student interest and two we got to be able to afford it or figure out how we can pay for it.” 

Q: Is that sustainable when schools are facing budget issues? 

A: Well, we’re working on a plan now. Some sports are easier to add that others like tennis and golf or sports that I don’t have to pay officials. So that’s huge and also transportation is a major part of my budget. So anytime I have a sport that’s a smaller sport and we can transport in the minibus or maybe a suburban or cars, then it’s a lot more affordable to add that sport than it would be to add a sport that we have to roll a full school bus. We’re working on the budget and we’re hoping we can move some things around to be able to support those sports.

Q:What do you think student athletes get out of the experience? 

A: Thinking back to my high school experience, one of the things I remember the most are those things that we did outside the classroom. The memories I made with my teammates. I was on the newspaper staff. The memories I made with those students and the friendships I made tend to be the things that I recall when I think back to my high school experience. Obviously I learned things in the classroom experience as well. But the memories that really stick with me tended to take place outside the classroom. So I’m hoping when our students walk out of here, they’ve had a positive highschool experience and they look back fondly on their time, whether it be in the choir or on the tennis team. We hope they have some fond memories of high school and their time here as Pirates.

Q: You have both jobs as AD and Vice-Principal. What is your role for VP? 

A: “I also do academic and support the ninth grade team, and support the discipline around the school, classroom observations, all that kind of stuff. I also supervise the performing arts department as well. I enjoy being in charge of the things that kids look forward to most during the day. A lot of times, kids get to go to school, but they really enjoy the sports practices, the drama practices, the choir, and I enjoy seeing kids learn to push themselves and learn to work together as a team. Whether it’s a soccer team or choir, and they just perform at their top level. It’s rewarding to see that.”