Pending Wright City R-II Board of Education approval, Doug Smith is set to take over the Wright City girls basketball program. 

Wright City Activities Director David Evans recently confirmed the hire of Smith as the head girls basketball coach. The hire will become official upon approval from the Wright City R-II Board of Education, which is slated to meet next week. 

One of two assistant superintendents in the Wright City district, Smith would bring over a decade of coaching experience to the bench for the Lady Wildcats. Smith coached both basketball and track his first 15 years as an educator before making the move into administration. After not coaching at the high school level for several years, Smith realized how much he missed coaching while serving as a volunteer assistant track and field coach at Timberland High School last season. Smith’s daughter competed on the Timberland track and field team last season. 

“I really just discovered how much I had missed coaching high school athletics,” Smith said. “And so when this job opened up, Mr. Evans had asked me if I would be interested. I said of course. But I’ve got the assistant superintendent job I’ve got to do. So let’s talk with Dr. (Chris) Berger and see if he’s ok with it. He was and so we went from there. I’m excited to get back into it.” 

Despite not coaching basketball at the high school level for several years, Smith has only been away from coaching basketball for a couple years. He coached his daughter’s Select basketball teams for quite a few years. 

If approved by the Board of Education, Smith will be the fourth Wright City girls basketball coach in the last four years. Dustin Elledge coached the Lady Wildcats last season in his only season at Wright City. He took the activities director position at Van-Far. Prior to Elledge’s stint, Abby Modaff coached the Lady Wildcats for one season. Dan Friedel coached the Lady Wildcats in the 2020-2021 season, when next year’s senior class were freshmen. 

Smith thinks one of the big challenges for the players will be a change in style on the court. 

“I think I’m probably a lot more like what they had when they were freshmen,” Smith said. “Coach Friedel who was here at that time, I watched him coach and I’m like, this is the way I like the game to be played. That’s not to say anything bad about our last two. It’s just the way that he coached with that intensity level and the way the kids played was fun to watch.” 

Smith’s preference is to play a fast pace and an aggressive defense. 

“If I had my way, we’d play with like a 15 second shot clock,” Smith said. 

Smith said his main focus early on includes effort and skill development. Smith said the Lady Wildcats are athletic and have players who intuitively understand the game. 

“It’s now can we get our skills matching our athletic ability and matching our intensity and matching what we can do,” Smith said. “And so that’s what we’ve been spending a lot of time on. And a lot of just individual one-on-one skills breaking down what we can do to get better.” 

Wright City returns several key contributors from last year’s team but will need to fill the void left by Jasmin Simpson, who led Wright City with 22.5 points per game last season. A key for the Lady Wildcats this season will be for everyone to chip in and contribute, Smith said. 

One of Smith’s main goals for the Lady Wildcats this season on the court is to improve and develop confidence in their abilities because they are getting better as basketball players. 

“I think we sometimes screw up when we say success means I’m going to win this many games or I’m going to win this,” Smith said. “But success is really are you maximizing your abilities? Are you the best that you can be? Are you getting better every day? That’s a sign of success.”