South Point to pay tribute by naming track after legendary coach Randy Smith

The South Point Board of Education voted Tuesday to name the high school track after legendary coach Randy Smith.

The school will erect a sign in his honor, but if you listed all his accomplishments they’d have to get a large billboard.

Randy played at South Point where he was a football, wrestling and track standout. He made the basketball team as a freshman but saw a boy crying after he failed to make the team. Not as enthused about basketball as other sports, Randy went to coach Bob White and asked to let the other boy take his position on the team.

When wrestling coach Bob Lester saw that Randy wasn’t going to play basketball, he grabbed him and got him to wrestle.

Randy went on to earn All-Ohio Valley Conference honors.

Randy went to Glenville State to play football and started for a 10-3 team that finished as NAIA national runners-up.

He graduated in just three and one-half years and returned to South Point where he was hired as a teacher, freshman football coach and assistant track coach.

Randy’s older brothers were pole vaulters when the family lived in Teays Valley.

“Track wasn’t a major sport at South Point. There was no emphasis on it. I really enjoyed it not knowing one day it was my vocation,” said Randy.

After graduating in only 3 and a half years from college and only 21, Randy wanted to get into coaching and they had an opening in track for an assistant to head coach Bob McClain.

But McClain left the next year and Smith took over at the tender age of 22.

Scott Tatman qualified for the state meet in his first year which began a string of 16 straight years with a state meet qualifier. The streak was broken when a hurdler who qualified for the meet was injured in a bicycle accident and couldn’t compete.

Randy’s first state meet created a lasting memory.

“Scott Tatman was the 16th qualifier. He always won around here and he was just smiling all the time. I told him when the race is over I want to see you on your hands and knees throwing up. I want to see that kind of effort,” said Randy.

“Scott led the first two laps but he faded to sixth. And at the finish line, right there in front of 30 or 40 thousand people, he upchucked.”

What followed was 39 years of league championships, district and regional titles, a plethora of state qualifiers of which many placed, and several who came away as a state champion.

“I know it’s in the teens, but I don’t know how many,” Randy said about the program’s number of OVC track titles.

But for Randy Smith, it was always about helping the kids. He cared for each one and did his best to keep them on the straight and narrow way. He wanted them to succeed not only in track, but in life after high school.

“Jim Epling was a really good coach at Russell and I was young, 22, 23. I asked him if there is one thing I need to know to make me successful as a coach, what would it be,” said Randy.

“And without blinking an eye he said, ‘Love your kids.’”

And Randy took the advice to heart.

The track program lacked a track to practice on for a long time. There was little money spent on food to feed players at the state meet. Smith bought canopies, shoes and other items with his own money. If a kid was left alone while his parents were away, he had them spend the night at his home.

Randy was fortunate to have a sidekick who happened to be his brother Rusty Smith. It was Rusty who helped with shot put and discus. Randy took care of the rest and between them they built one of the top track programs in the area.

Randy and Rusty have given so much to so many and they do it because they want what’s best for the kids. It was never about them.

Randy is currently being considered for the Ohio High School Track & Field Hall of Fame, something that should have happened long before now. Randy is not only one of the most successful track coaches in our area, but throughout the state of Ohio.

And he should also be considered as the most successful coach of any sport in any era of the South Point School District.

Rusty could have a banner hanging at most of the area schools’ shot put and discus rings. Rusty helps anyone from anywhere who asks him.

Two of his shot putters at South Point were state champion Derrick Taylor now at Tennessee and three-time state champion and national champion Theresa Sherman.

Among his pupils Rusty can count the in the training of Randy Barnes of West Virginia who went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal and Silver Medal in the shot put. Barnes set the world record in the shot put that stood 31 years until 2021.

Not a bad reference.

The honor is more than deserved and the joy and excitement felt by him and his family is heartfelt. The only thing that dampens the whole situation is the fact Randy has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

A Christian man, Randy has shown great strength in his battle. He won’t undergo chemotherapy. He said “I want to live my last days.”

While he appears to take this serious condition in stride like one of his hurdlers in a race, you can sense that he has plenty of concerns that weigh heavy on his heart and mind.

And, of course, it is about his children and grandchildren. It’s about the people he loves that he won’t see regularly or the former track runners and throwers just waiting to hear that familiar voice greet them with “Hey my man. How are you doing?”

The name of the track will leave a lasting memory of what Randy Smith did for the South Point program and the students. But what he meant to them will be remembered in their hearts.