April 4, 2018
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - After arriving at Missouri for grad school, Annie Smith stopped by Mizzou's softball field.
"I said, 'I'll go see if they need help,'" said Smith, recalling the beginning of her coaching career 22 years ago. "It kind of fell in my lap."
A former softball player at Iowa's Grinnell College, Smith so impressed the Missouri staff that she received an offer to be a graduate assistant the following season. The job paid $320 a month. Her rent was $260. Smith worked two other part-time jobs to help pay the bills.
"Stayed there, and got lucky," Smith said. "That's how life works. You end up in the right places and you move the way you need to."
After becoming an assistant coach at Missouri, Smith gained SEC experience at Mississippi State and LSU, in between a successful head coaching stint at Georgia Southern.
Along the way, she ran into the coach who would one day bring her to Auburn, Mickey Dean.
"We were both out recruiting," Smith said. "I'd be there early, he'd be there early. I'd be there late, he'd be the last one at the game. We'd just see each other a lot out recruiting. You do this as long as we have, everybody kind of knows everybody. Your paths cross. That's how it happened."
When Dean became Auburn's head coach in September, he remembered Smith's work ethic on the recruiting trail.
"Annie's a hard worker," Dean said. "She's a perfectionist and wants to be the best as far as providing the information we need in our scouting reports and working with the players. She's someone who is easy to talk to, which is beneficial to our team."
"The opportunity to work at Auburn was a great opportunity," Smith said. "To work for him, and to have this challenge, and this experience, you can't turn it down. I'm very fortunate.
"It's great to be back in the SEC. It's the best softball league. If you want to win a national championship, it gives you the best opportunity to do that. It's a great opportunity, and the fans are great here, the environment is awesome, so I've really enjoyed it."
Before each practice, you'll find Smith at home plate, hitting extra grounders to Auburn's infielders. While the infield is her primary responsibility, Smith also assists Dean and fellow assistant Eddy Ketelhut at practice. During games, she positions the infield based on hitters' tendencies and Auburn's pitching strategy.
When the Tigers are not practicing or playing, Smith scouts opponents, studies video and assists in recruiting.
In her first season at Auburn, the No. 13 Tigers are one of 11 SEC teams ranked in the Top 25.
"We have all of the facets of the game covered," Smith said. "We're very fortunate. We have a great pitching staff. We played solid defense and we have a good offense. When you have all of those pieces together, it's very advantageous. We have some depth. It's been fun to see them working together.
"They know how to win here. They work hard. The athletic department takes care of the people. The gameday environment is probably the best I've been at, and I've been at a lot of SEC games in my time. Just like at the football games, they do it better than anybody I've seen. Merging the old and the new, and getting everybody involved. I've been very impressed with how they handle all that. How they treat the fans. All of the opportunities and the resources, and the people are great."
All of which makes Annie Smith thankful she decided to volunteer that first week of grad school.
"The coaching thing, I just enjoy it," she said. "I enjoy all of the aspects of coaching, the people, getting to do a lot of different things, and not having to sit behind a desk, and the competition and the challenges of it. I guess it was what it was meant to be."
Flashing the leather: @coachanniesmith with pre-practice grounders for @makenna_dowell at SS & @JustusPerry18 at 1B.#backhand pic.twitter.com/lVViLCELW8
- Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) March 28, 2018
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer