Rhonda Smith was named the athletic department's first-ever strength and conditioning coach in the fall of 2021. Officially hired as an assistant women's soccer coach in February of 2018, Smith was promoted to associate head coach following the 2019 season before becoming Lourdes' athletic strength and conditioning coach, full-time.
In her first three seasons with the Gray Wolves, Lourdes produced five Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference All-Newcomer Team honorees as well as six WHAC Players of the Week. The Gray Wolves also have had 21 WHAC All-Academic Team members along with 20 NAIA Scholar-Athletes during Smith’s time as a member of the Lourdes staff.
During the 2019 season, Smith was instrumental in helping lead the Gray Wolves to a WHAC tournament berth while tying the school record with eight victories and Lourdes returned to the postseason event in 2020.
Smith arrived at Lourdes after spending the three seasons as the head coach at Bluffton University where she was the first full time head coach in program history. During Smith’s building process with the program, she produced a Second Team All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference selection along with five Honorable Mention All-HCAC picks.
Her student-athletes excelled in the classroom that maintained a team a 3.4 GPA or higher. Under her tutelage, three players were named Academic All-Ohio and eight earned Academic All-HCAC honors. Smith was also an assistant professor in the Health, Fitness, and Sport Science department.
Prior to her head-coaching job at Bluffton, Smith spent five seasons as a NCAA Division I assistant coach. She coached two seasons at Bowling Green, where she worked with the goalkeepers, including one who led the Mid-American Conference in 2014 both in saves, a school record 146, and saves per game. Smith spent one season as an assistant coach at Youngstown State, which marked the most successful season in the program’s history at that time.
Prior to Youngstown State, Smith was the assistant at Duquesne for two season after three years on the sidelines at NCAA Division II Ashland, where she was an assistant with both the men’s and women’s programs. Smith began her coaching career at Concord University in West Virginia as a student-assistant coach in 2005 and 2006.
Smith also has an extensive club coaching resume, including stints with Pacesetter Soccer Club in Sylvania, Ohio, FC Pittsburgh, Pennine United Soccer Club in Lodi, Ohio, Putnam County Soccer Club in Greencastle, Ind., and East River Soccer Club in Bluefield, W. Va.
Smith played four seasons at Concord University, where she was a two-time captain and earned her B.S. in education, physical education, and health. She earned her M.Ed. in applied exercise science from Ashland University in 2009. Smith has earned her NSCAA Advance National Diploma coaching licensure and NSCAA Goalkeeper III Diploma. She is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
