Hometown Flair: Rosepine baseball coach Jeff Smith takes 500th career win in stride
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Rosepine baseball coach Jeff Smith didn’t want to infringe on his senior players’ big night.
The Eagles were making their final home appearance of the regular season against East Beauregard and paid tribute to Gabriel McKee, Rowan Embrey, Zane Wellmaker, Aidan Shell, and Emmanual Brownlee.
Rosepine quickly handled business in a 13-1 run-rule victory, but there was greater meaning to that April 10th evening when the importance shifted to Smith, an alum of the school whose entire 27-year coaching career has been spent at the Vernon Parish school.
The Eagles, who broke through with the school’s first two state championships under Smith in 2021 and ’22, handed their long-time coach the 500th win of a career that still burns as bright as the day he took over three months after his graduation from college.
“People were fairly aware of it,” said Smith, who went on to earn his 501st win a day later in a 9-7 win over DeRidder. “We knew it was about to happen. I had a feeling there were some people wanting to do something, to celebrate it. I told them I really didn’t want to do that on Senior Night and take away from their night, so we didn’t. It worked out perfectly.”
Smith was on the receiving end of congratulatory handshakes and pats on the back. He even received a commemorative pocketknife with ‘500’ engraved on it from the sophomore members of his team and their parents.
It was an agreeable way for the low-keyed Smith to enjoy his latest milestone. He’s got his eye on the bigger picture and that’s to see how far Rosepine can advance in this year’s Division III select state playoffs.
For a team with seven new starters, the Eagles (20-10) have gelled enough to earn a No. 11 seed, earning a first-round bye and a trip to Baton Rouge. They will face No. 6 Episcopal (19-12) in a best-of-three regional series that could take place beginning next Tuesday.
“It’s that time of year where we’ve got our minds focused on the playoffs and getting prepared for that,” Smith said. “It’s all good.”
Young team builds toward postseason
Rosepine graduated seven seniors from last year’s team that reached the state regionals, dropping a best-of-three series to Loreauville, 2-1.
Smith didn’t back off in his preparation to sharpen his team, which has generally consisted of six starters that were underclassmen, for a run at a district championship and deep playoff run.
“To have 20 wins with the schedule we play, we’re right on pace with where we thought we were going to be with this group of guys,” Smith said. “We like the talent level with these younger guys, and they compete hard.”
Rosepine took part in tournaments at Iota, Westlake, and DeQuincy along with its own tournament. The Eagles went 4-2 against teams in Classes 4A-3A, including a 12-5 win over Iota in the Bulldogs’ tournament and a 10-2 triumph against DeRidder in Westlake’s event.
Rosepine swept three games during its early-March tournament, outscoring the opposition of DeQuincy, DeRidder, and Bunkie, 18-3.
When it was time for District 4-2A competition Rosepine was among the league’s front runners but was the runner-up to DeQuincy by one game.
“We all three had pretty good arms,” Smith said. “We dropped two to DeQuincy who had two senior pitchers that are pretty dynamic and pitched and played well against us.”
Senior shortstop Gabe McKee, the team’s lead-off batter, has been the team’s most consistent player and his defense has also been an asset. Sophomore catcher Grayson Gardner has given the Eagles a calming effect behind the plate to handle a talented pitching staff of sophomore Barrett Coody, senior Aidan Shell, Sophomore Dawson Dearmon, and sophomore Tug Haymon.
“If you pitch and catch, you can win a lot of games and we’ve done that consistently this year,” Smith said.
Launch point of coaching career was at home
The love affair between Smith and baseball has a long history dating to his youth in his hometown of less than 2,000 residents.
Smith was a player that proudly wore the purple and white of Rosepine High where he thrived and earned all-state honors. His career extended beyond the borders of Vernon Parish, taking him to Bay Minette, Ala. to play for a year at Faulkner State Community College.
His relatively short stay, though, proved profound. He played for head coach Wayne Larker, who was inducted into the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008, and it was the influence of his coach that helped to shape his future vision.
“He had the most impact on my coaching side of baseball,” Smith said of Larker, who also coached at Coastal Alabama Community College.
Smith transferred to LSU Shreveport, played for three years, graduated, and returned home to interview with then-Rosepine principal Charles Lewis. The school was looking to replace head baseball coach Mark Brown who became the school’s very successful softball coach.
Three months after his college graduation, Smith was back in his hometown, coaching, and teaching at his alma mater – a place he’s been since.
“I fell in love with the game at a very young age and became passionate about it,” Smith said. “I came through here and played here and always wanted to play college ball. Every kid’s dream is to kind of make it as far as they can in the game. I did as well as I could as far as that’s concerned.
“The main thing was to come back here,” Smith said. “The main thing that drove me back to Rosepine was to give the kids here something they could be very proud of and allow them the most opportunity they could get out of it if they wanted more after their high school careers. To give back to the guys that fell in love with the game and loved the game like I did when I was a kid and in high school.”
Smith believed his work ethic would compensate for a lack of coaching experience.
“I wasn’t worried whatsoever,” he said. “I don’t remember how I felt back then. I’m kind of a hard work guy and just hit the ground running. I obviously didn’t know hardly anything about it. I just knew we needed to work hard, that we needed to get busy and try and develop some type of culture here.”
Raising expectations for the program, school
Smith coached both football (for 25 years) and baseball at the rural Class 2A school.
Clearly, his desire was to bring the Eagles’ baseball program to another level and after 23 years of coaching, he managed to kick down the door at the state tournament.
“It was getting a little long there,” Smith said. “I was wondering if this was really going to happen. You don’t get into it to win state championships and just to win. You get in to create relationships, develop young men and we’ve been doing that for years. At some point you go, ‘We’re doing things right. We think we’re doing this right. We’re not seeing that state championship caliber dividend.’ We were thinking if it was ever going to happen.”
The precursor to back-to-back state championships in 2021-2022 was a state semifinal appearance five years earlier.
Rosepine was the seventh-seeded team in the Class 2A playoffs and recorded a pair of shutout victories. That sent the Eagles up against No. 2 DeQuincy in the quarterfinal where they pulled a 2-1 upset to advance to the semifinals against No. 3 Lakeside, which took a 7-1 victory.
“That ’17 season laid the groundwork for us getting back in ’21,” Smith said. “We kind of always were eliminated by really good private schools. It was kind of a hard hurdle for us to get over for some reason. We broke through in 2017. That was a big deal for us. We learned the dedication and discipline it took to get there and created a road map on how to get back.”
Three years later when the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting the world and shut down the state playoffs, Rosepine welcomed a heralded group of freshmen that included Ethan Frey.
“It was a special group,” Smith said. “It was a group that had been put together early and played a lot of travel early and they came through the community together. We picked up a couple of kids along the way that really contributed to that group. When they came in, they were different.
“They kind of had a different mindset and you could tell they had a common goal and were bought into what we were doing,” Smith said. “They were ultra disciplined and competitive and bought into the system which was the most impressive thing, and it showed on the field.”
One of the more memorable wins of the ’21 season was on March 30 in a 15-0 mercy-rule win over Kinder.
It was the 400th career victory for Smith whose son Jake was 4-for-4 in the runaway win.
“That will be something I’ll never forget,” said Smith, who was presented with a special jersey with ‘400’ on the back. “That was kind of special.”
Rosepine was 29-5 and faced some resistance in the middle of the playoffs with a pair of 2-0 wins over Delhi Charter and Fisher before taking down No. 3 Mangham, 9-5, in the semifinals.
Frey, noted for his catching and hitting prowess, was also a hard-throwing right-hander who threw a complete-game one-hitter in a 1-0 victory over Doyle. The Eagles’ lone run was courtesy of Grant Ducote’s RBI single after Logan Calcote doubled.
It was not only the first state title for Smith and the baseball program but the first for the school in any team sport.
With the bulk of that team in place and expectations heightened, the Eagles managed to exceed their predecessor with a 34-3 record in ’22. They were the top-seeded team that simply steamrolled their way to the state title – shutting out each team they faced and outscoring them, 55-0.
Frey, who signed with LSU, repeated as the Class 2A Most Outstanding Player. The Eagles had a total of five first-team all-state selections with Smith’s son Jake, the team’s lead-off batter and infielder, Ducote, Calcote, and pitcher Braden Trull.
Besides Frey, the state’s winner of the Mr. Baseball honor, Rosepine also sent four other players to college in Trull (Louisiana College), Smith (Louisiana Tech) and Ducote (preferred walk-on at LSU Eunice).
“It did elevate things when those guys came through,” Smith said. “We won two (state) titles in girls’ sports and had some individual state titles. It proved to people in our community that if you work hard enough, and you’re committed to it enough, you can achieve some of the things other schools are doing.
“There is an expectation in all of our athletic programs and throughout our entire school,” Smith said. “We’re a real good academic school. The expectations are high here. We keep kind of doing the same things, use the same foundational values we use every year, and we don’t deviate. We keep getting results.”
Smith said achieving the level of success, one that’s filtered throughout the school, has been special because of the origin of his journey that began at home. It’s the same place where he’s able to keep a watchful eye on his children and grandchildren, the latter who are now in the same school system where he’s impacted so many students.
“It is kind of incredible when you look at it,” he said. “It lends itself to a high level of commitment and just perseverance and commitment to what you do. I’m thankful to Charles Lewis. I’ve been surrounded by great administrators, co-workers, parents and players that commit to what I want to do. I have a great wife, family and assistants. This community has embraced me and allowed me to do the things that I need to do to help create the culture we’ve created within our program.
“The wins are great, we all want to win,” he said. “The sponsors, the communities’ contributions, people that have bought signs, helped with our auction, given their time and effort to these guys and to the cause. Guys like me that started doing this in their hometowns are vested in their community and in their families. Guys like us feel obligated to serve our communities and that’s what kind of kept me here and doing what I do.”