University of Maine at Presque Isle veteran cross country coach Chris Smith was honored by his peers when selected as the North Atlantic Conference Women’s Coach of the Year.
The Owls are competing in their first season in the NAC and the women’s team enjoyed an excellent season. UMPI finished third at the recent conference championships in Belfast. Individual runners have shown tremendous growth over the course of the season with all of Smith’s runners improving their race times significantly.
Freshman runner Valentine Degiovanni has been selected Rookie of the Week in the NAC twice and garnered Runner of the Week honors once. Freshman Irina Norkin, junior Emmy Churchill, sophomore Kendra Silvers, senior Chenoa Jackson, sophomore Rebecca Griffin and senior Jenny Sanborn have all grown under the tutelage of Smith.
He began coaching at UMPI in 1987. He can now claim having been at the helm of the men’s program for more than half its existence and has coached the women for all but three years of his tenure. Numerous individual and team awards have been attained, the most memorable being the All-American status of Owl Hall of Famer Katherine Chabot. There also have been numerous national qualifying team championships and both individual and team academic awards.
Smith has had at least one athlete qualify for and race in each national championship meet since 1989. In 2011, the Owls sent four male runners to the USCAA Championships in Lake Placid, New York. Along the way he has been named Maine Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, District Coach of the Year on two occasions, Region 10 Coach of the Year and Combined Regions 9 and 10 Coach of the Year.
He also has served as chairperson for various conferences, was a member of the national ranking committee for three years, and has been co-director/director of The County Cross Country Running Camp at UMPI since 1995.
Coach Smith possesses two undergraduate degrees in physical education from UMPI and a master’s degree in kinesiology and physical education from the University of Maine. His coaching philosophy is one in which academics are the overall priority with attention to the individual athlete being the focus. His comprehensive training program requires the balancing of running, racing, nutrition, psychology, rest and recovery with the goal being the improvement of individual running economy, which is a major emphasis in his graduate work.
