By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman High School checked all the boxes that Joe Smith was looking for in a coaching job.
Joe Smith
Smith formerly coached middle school basketball for Seaman and works and lives and has a daughter that attends school in the district.
Now the former Washburn Ichabod, who has coached Jefferson West the past five seasons, is set to add the final piece of the puzzle after being selected to succeed retiring Craig Cox as the Vikings' head boys basketball coach pending approval from the Seaman USD 345 school board.
"Obviously opportunities present themselves and you want to continue to grow and challenge yourself professionally,'' said Smith, who works at Seaman's alternative school. "But also my daughter plays and assuming she continues to play I would have some decisions to make in a couple of years anyway. Do I keep coaching at Jeff West and miss all of her games because she would still be at Seaman or do I not coach and watch her play or does she go to Jeff West? There was just a lot of family stuff to consider.
"But honestly, everything that Seaman embodies as a school district is the stuff that I kind of live my life by, so it's just kind of the right place, right time, perfect fit for me and my family.''
Smith takes over a Viking program that Cox led to a state title in 2022 and a third-place finish in Class 5A this past season.
The Vikings graduated a talented senior class, including Shawnee County and United Kansas Conference player of the year KaeVon Bonner, but Smith is confident Seaman can continue its run of success.
"I think the word that I would use is consistent,'' Smith said. "They are consistently in the conversation every year, no matter who they have. It's kind of a changing of the guard in a bunch of different senses. This will be the first time that a Bonner boy isn't been playing for Seaman in the last 12 years, but hopefully this will give some other guys some opportunities to showcase what they can do.
"I just want to keep them consistent and keep them in the conversation and not have any letup. I definitely don't want to go in and try to re-invent the wheel. I've just got to kind of put my stamp on things and my spin on things and just see what we can make out of it.''
Smith, a native of Memphis, Tenn., played for Washburn from 2011-2013 and also played professionally in Denmark and for Michigan in the American Basketball Association before embarking on his coaching career.
Smith coached for two years at Washburn and also coached at Highland Park and Seaman Middle School before taking over the head coaching job at Jeff West, which posted a 15-10 record this past season.
