Smith Follows Father's Footsteps
Nov 25 | Women's Soccer
By Tom Luicci
ScarletKnights.com
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - As a highly-recruited soccer player out of Shawnee (N.J.) High School Erin Smith had her pick of colleges and her father, Dennis, said he made sure to give her the freedom to make her own choice.
At least that's his version of how the recruiting process played out. Erin Smith isn't so sure that's entirely accurate.
"He was always reliving his days at Rutgers to me and my sister, telling us how he wrestled here, how he was captain his senior year," said Erin Smith, the Scarlet Knights' junior defender. "He always wanted me to go here because he wrestled here, so he put that in my head early on.
"Let's just say he was very happy when I committed here."
For the entire Smith family there's a lot to like about Rutgers athletics these days. As Erin Smith prepares for the No. 9-ranked Scarlet Knights' Elite Eight match against No. 1-ranked Virginia on Friday in Charlottesville, Va., her dad's other favorite sport - wrestling - features the nation's No. 14-ranked team at Rutgers.
"I'm very happy for both programs," said Dennis Smith. "To see women's soccer doing so well, reaching the Elite Eight, has made for an enjoyable season. I also follow the wrestling team and they're doing very well. The move to the Big Ten has really paid off for those two sports."
Smith, recently retired from a lengthy teaching career at Delran High School, is able to make most of the Rutgers women's soccer games and a few of the Scarlet Knights' home wrestling matches now - something that wasn't always possible because of schedule conflicts. That's because he was the head wrestling coach at Delran for 38 years, finishing as the winningest coach in South Jersey history with a 605-196-5 record.
That was an outgrowth of his college days when he lettered in wrestling from 1970-72 at Rutgers (freshmen were not eligible in 1969). After becoming Lenape (N.J.) High School's first state wrestling champion at 106 pounds in 1968, he wrestled at 118 pounds - the first weight class in the college ranks then - his first three seasons at Rutgers before moving to 126 pounds as a senior.
"My sophomore year at Rutgers I was fourth in the EIWA," he said. "My junior year I was doing well but toward the end of the season I broke my ankle wrestling against Lehigh so I didn't get to wrestle in the EIWA that year. My senior year I was captain. That wasn't my best year.
"I didn't place that year. But I did have a winning record in dual meets."
The discipline required to compete athletically at the college level is something he passed on to his daughter, a three-year starter for Scarlet Knights, who are enjoying the best season in program history at 19-3-2.
"I remember growing up he would always say `when I was your age I didn't go out and party or do things like that because I was a dedicated wrestler and I never would have gotten to Rutgers if I wasn't,' '' said Erin Smith. "So that was something that always stuck with me. He understood the sacrifices you have to make to be a successful athlete."
She has done her part in contributing to the record-breaking campaign this fall with two goals and three assists. Smith tallied the game-winner against Minnesota while being an integral part of a defense that helped Rutgers to a program-record 770:16 minutes of shutout soccer to start the season.
Rutgers has set a school record with 18 shutouts and ranks as the country's stingiest defense, having extended that success with three clean sheets in the NCAA Tournament.
"I'm very proud to watch my daughter play for Rutgers," Dennis Smith said. "It's great watching her play and the program has really grown. It was always good but they've really taken it up a level. This has been a team that is fun to watch because of the coaches and the players."
The elder Smith, a 1972 Rutgers graduate, still marvels at the changes in the school's landscape that have taken place since his undergraduate days.
"The growth has been astronomical. Night and day," he said. "It's really remarkable to see how much it has changed - everything, I think, except the buses. We had them when I was there, too."
