Photo Courtesy of SC Jaguars
ON THE FAST TRACK—Southwestern College distance runner Tiffany Uribe battles for the lead down the home stretch during a recent meet. Her new coach, Toni Smith, is the first to lead men and women at Southwestern College.
By Zeke Watson
Throughout her life Toni Smith was always ready to make the jump.
First as a 12-year-old track and field phenom, then a high school superstar, next a four-time All-American triple jump champion at the University of Oklahoma and 2016 Olympic trials finalist.
Last year Smith jumped into the head coaching job of the Southwestern College track and field team. She is the first woman to coach men in the 60-year history of the institution and an all-too-rare Black woman coach.
Her illustrious predecessor, Olympic silver medalist and five-time PCAC Coach of the Year Tonie Campbell, said his protégé is a talented coach who is ready to soar.
“I have known Toni Smith previously as a world-class athlete,” said Campbell, now Dean of Athletics at Cuyamaca College. “She was not content to just stay in her lane. She always wanted to know more. Her thirst for knowledge, appetite for hard work and dedication to coaching were all key traits for her to replace me as head coach.”
Smith was a household name in Norman, Oklahoma, but arrived at Southwestern under humble circumstances.
“I started as just a driver,” she said. “I worked my way up as the assistant coach for horizontal jumps. Then, in 2022, I was officially hired as the head coach.”
Exact data for women coaching men in community colleges is difficult to pin down, but in the NCAA only six percent of women head coaches lead men.
Smith seemed genuinely surprised when the topic was broached.
“I never put it into that perspective that I am the head coach of a men’s team,” she said with a gentle hint of an Oklahoma accent. “I look at everyone as athletes. I never gender it off, like, oh, these are the men over here, the women here. It just coach everybody.”
Smith said it was an honor to be the first woman head coach of the Southwestern College Track and Field team and she owed the community her very best effort. She also wants to set a good example for African American women, she said, as well as her assistant coaches and athletes.
“I knew what I was getting myself into just being a coach,” she said. “I knew it was going to be predominantly older white men. In my first year as a competitor it took some time for them to learn who I was. (Coaches thought) oh, this is just a young girl, until I got a state championship in the triple jump.”
From then on, she said, people made it a point to come over and introduce themselves.
“It was like, prove yourself because we’ve been in the game 20 years,” said Smith. “Then, in that short amount of time, I was able to make a big impression. If I can change the perspective on what a coach should look like, I’m here, baby!”
Smith has made an impression in the South County as well, first with her effervescent personality and her style. (She favors colorful African print head wraps and pressed Southwestern College Track jackets). After a year in the top job, she is earning the respect of the athletic community, said Campbell.
“Toni is capable of coming out of my shadow and creating her own legacy at Southwestern,” he said. “When you are a coach, every single kid is looking to you to advance their skills. She has the insight to help these young athletes.”
Smith said she and her mentor share a common philosophy about coaching. Track coaches – like mathematics professors – are teachers first.
“I have to look at track athletes individually and see them for who they are,” she said. “We have different fitness levels here, and I must adjust my expectations to their reality and come to a happy medium.”
A good coach pushes athletes out of their comfort zone and encourages them to reach new levels, Smith said, but keeps in mind the human part of the equation. Southwestern College track athletes are not entering the program as four-time All-Americans at a major athletic university, so Smith needs to make constant adjustments, she said.
“(I was) a different type of athlete,” she said. “I envisioned (training and competing) where I wanted them to be. But the type of group I work with (is) not ready for that type of training right now. It is something to work towards.”
Smith’s enthusiasm is contagious as she makes the rounds during a recent practice session. Athletes see her love for track and field as well as her concern for each of them. She is big on form and fitness, but even more interested in her athletes as students and people.
“My objective is to see them transfer to a university. That’s my goal,” she said. “I want track athletes to finish their educations or finish something they’re passionate about.”
Life, she said, is a leap of faith.
