In 23 seasons under coach Steve Smith, Hope College men's soccer has become a highly regarded program among NCAA Division III teams.
Averaging 13 victories a season, coach Smith ranked 17th nationally among all active NCAA Division III coaches by winning percentage entering the 2012 season. He also ranked in the top twenty among the winningest all-time Division III coaches by percentage (18th).
Smith's record through the 2012 season is 320-108-34, .757. His mark against MIAA opponents is 219-62-20. With 200 conference wins, Smith joined two hall-of-fame coaches -- Hardy Fuchs of Kalamazoo (254 MIAA wins from 1971-2002) and Marv Zuidema of Calvin (214 wins from 1970-1997) -- who also achieved that distinction over the 40-year history of MIAA soccer.
Smith has taken his teams on international trips three times, most recently in 2009.
He has guided the Flying Dutchmen to nine MIAA championships (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010) and appeared in the NCAA tournament 10 times (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011).
In 1996 Hope became the first MIAA team to win three consecutive outright conference championships. The 2005 team won a school-record 13 games against league opponents. In 1994, Smith was voted the Mideast Region Division III Coach of the Year. The 2011 team advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III championships.
A professor of kinesiology at Hope, Smith received his doctorate degree in motor development from Michigan State University.
Smith in 2011 authored a series of books featuring easy-to-do fitness activities for kids and families. His on-going research focusses on performance and fitness levels in children, with an interest in encouraging healthy behaviors. The books grew out of his discovery that exercise plans for children don't do so well unless their families are part of the picture.
While growing up in Lansing, Mich., he played soccer at Capital City Christian High School. He played soccer four years at Grand Rapids Baptist College ('81) where he received his bachelor's degree.
He coached soccer at Lansing Christian High School while working toward his masters degree at MSU. He also did a soccer internship with Michigan State University coach Joe Baum. He was assistant soccer coach at Manchester College in Indiana in 1988 and 1989.
Smith taught undergraduate classes in growth and motor development, measurement and evaluation, and elementary physical education methodology at Michigan State and Manchester. He has a strong background in adapted physical education including the teaching of physically and mentally retarded children. He instituted the "I CAN" program for a school district which previously had no physical education for the handicapped.
Smith and his wife, Nancy, have two sons, Trevor and Macall, and a daughter, Shanley.
