10 rings, 5 Halls of Fame: Peabody’s Charles Smith further adds to legacy

by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

It’s kind of hard to overshadow a coach with 1,286 wins, 10 state championships, and who was recently inducted into his fifth hall of fame.

During Tuesday’s induction ceremony of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, legendary boys basketball coach Charles Smith of Peabody Magnet in Alexandria sat in awe. He was among 39 coaches from 20 states, representing a variety of sports, who were receiving the same honor at the organization’s national convention at the Hyatt Regency in Coralville, IA.

“I thought 1,286 wins were a lot of wins,” Smith said upon his return home Wednesday. “They had some volleyball coaches with 2,000 wins. That’s kind of a humbling experience. I was up against the best in baseball, basketball, football, track, powerlifting and cross country.”

Smith joined volleyball coach Julie Ibieta of Metairie Park Country Day in the Class of 2026. 

Technically, it’s the fourth hall of fame to induct Smith, 76, who completed his 40th season at Peabody, where the Warhorses won their 11th state championship overall and 10th under Smith.

Smith was first enshrined into the Louisiana High School Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. He added the National High School Coaches Hall of Fame honor in 2021, followed three years later when the Naismith Hall of Fame inducted him in 2024.

He’s also eligible for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame upon his retirement.

“I tell people all of the time that when it becomes work, then I’ll know it’s time to get out here,” said Smith, the nation’s fourth winningest coach (1,268-220) according to the National Federation of High Schools. “I still enjoy it. I’ve been able to relate to kids over a long period of time.

“Most of my guys are underprivileged guys; they come from humble beginnings,” Smith said. “I try to use basketball as a tool to move them to another level. I’ve been able to take them from different areas of Alexandria and move them forward. It’s about developing character. I want them to turn out to be great basketball players, but the character part of it is very important.”

NHSACA’s executive director Tim Walluston informed Smith of his latest hall of fame destination two weeks after Peabody’s state championship in March.

The organization honors coaches such as Smith for their longevity and service to high school athletics. Career accomplishments are also factored with contributions to the coaching profession.

This season’s final game was an example of Smith’s growing coaching tree. 

When Peabody faced Northside for the Division II select state title, the Warhorses faced former Peabody standout Troy Jones, who was in his first season with the Vikings. He would later be named the Class 4A Coach of the Year.

“From earlier in the season, they improved,” Smith said of Northside. “When they beat Madison Prep (65-61 in semis), that was a heck of a win for them. They hung in there, and with his coaching ability, he was able to get them across the finish line. We had played them twice earlier and had a scouting report on them. We pulled it out.”

Smith’s tree also counts former players as part of his coaching tree, such as Lance Brasher of Alexandria Senior High, and two of his former players that have made their marks outside of Louisiana.

Rashid Smith, who played collegiately at Rice, has been the head coach of North Shore-Country Day in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Ill., while Aubreion Wright is the head coach at Dallas-Conrad. 

Josh Ivory is part of head coach Quannas White’s coaching staff at UL, serving as Director of Player Development.

“I’ve had a VP of Entergy, which is a Fortune 500 company in New Orleans,” Smith said. “Another is a pilot for FedEx, a tugboat captain off the Texas/Louisiana coast, law enforcement officers, attorneys and doctors. That’s the thing that makes me most happy. The wins and losses and state championships are fine, but I’ve been able to take these young boys and help them become productive members of society.”

Smith’s current staff is made up of three Peabody graduates, starting with his own son, Kedric Smith, who played at UNC-Charlotte, serving as the program’s associate head coach in charge of basketball operations.

John Ford, who played at McNeese State, was the team’s starting point guard on the 41-0 state championship team, and Greg Knox, a member of coach Smith’s first title team in 1991, also won a national title at the junior college level before returning to Peabody as an assistant.

“All of them are very special and very helpful to me with the program,” Coach Smith said.

The aforementioned group has helped alleviate Charles Smith’s bus-driving duties, but he continues as an advanced math/trigonometry teacher at the school.

Smith, an assistant on Peabody’s first state title in 1979, said his latest team may not have fit the profile to end the season cutting down the nets in Lake Charles.

The Warhorses evolved, with two freshmen and a sophomore, to become part of the program’s streak with state championships in four straight decades.

“This was probably one of the youngest teams I’ve taken to the Final Four,” he said.

Peabody tasted defeat three games into the season with a 69-57 setback against Dallas-Kimball, which went on to a 24-11 record and third Class 4A-D1 boys state title in four years.

“Kimball game was very important,” Smith said. “It helped to point the kids in the right direction. We ran off a string of victories after that. The loss was very important. It kind of helped us refocus, not only as players but as coaches as well. We looked at some things, the composition of the team; we made some adjustments that helped us the rest of the way.”

The Warhorses reeled off 15 straight wins until a 74-56 loss to Alexandria (31-4), which advanced to the Division I select state semifinals.

Smith said a four-game set of games in St. Martinville’s tournament proved taxing three days before the intense matchup with Alexandria.

“I’ll always tell the guys when you lose, don’t lose twice,” Smith said. “You can lose on the scoreboard, and you can lose by not learning anything from a loss. We went back to the drawing board, and the guys understood. They’re freshman and kind of got the big head, that they were all that and a bag of chips.

“It kind of brought us back down to the ground,” Smith said. “We picked up from there, got back in the gym, worked harder, and it paid off with a state championship.”

The Warhorses didn’t lose again.

They rattled off 10 wins to close the regular season, including a second win over Northside, and a statement 71-60 triumph over Division I non-select state runner-up Ruston. A narrow three-point win over Wossman (54-51) wrapped up a perfect District 2-4A championship.

Peabody, the No. 2 seed to Madison Prep in the Division II select bracket, didn’t have to sweat in its first two playoff games until reaching the state tournament at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.

Senior De’Vontre Sword played a pivotal role in his team’s 52-48 semifinal win over No. 3 Washington-Marion, Smith said.

“That was a big game for us because we could have easily folded,” he said. “The guys put it all together, and we pulled that one out. It was a tough game. We were playing in their backyard.”

Peabody capped the season with its 14th consecutive victory, building on a 36-25 halftime lead to eventually pull away from Northside in the second half for a convincing victory.

Sword scored a team-high 20 points in the final, and freshman Corey Blake joined him on the all-tournament team with 16 points and five rebounds. Senior Malachi Anderson added a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Connor Rosenthal added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Anderson and Blake were both selected to the LSWA’s Class 4A All-State second team. 

Two weeks later came the call for Smith to join the NHSACA’s Hall of Fame.

“Anyone that calls to tell you that you’re being enshrined in a hall of fame, that’s special in itself,” he said. “This was across all sports. That has a special meaning in itself.”