By Cort Reynolds
ADA - The Ada school board hired successful and experienced gridiron mentor Toby Smith as its new head varsity football coach last Thursday night at their regular December meeting.
"We are very happy to have a coach with a successful track record like his joining us," said Ada athletic director Eric Perkins.
"We think he will have a very positive impact on our student-athletes," he added.
A native of Connecticut, Smith is a 1993 graduate of Wittenberg University, where he received a bachelor's degree in health and physical education.
Smith played strong safety on the Tiger football team and center field for the Wittenberg baseball squad.
He currently resides in Urbana with his wife, and they have seven children (five boys, two girls).
Smith was a coach and teacher at West Liberty Salem Schools from 1995-2013. He served as head football coach at WLS from 1999-2012, compiling a 111-40 record during that span. His teams made nine playoff appearances at WLS out of the Ohio Heritage Conference in Divisions V and VI.
He then taught and was head coach at Bellefontaine from 2012-19, where his teams amassed a 46-27 record in seven seasons. Smith led Div. III Bellefontaine to four Central Buckeye Conference titles and two playoff showings in his tenure.
Currently, he is serving as a health and physical education teacher at Lima Senior High School. This fall (2020) he was the associate head coach/defensive coordinator for the Spartan football team.
Smith will continue to teach at Lima Senior the rest of this school year, then will teach and coach at Ada in the 2021-22 school year. He plans to implement workouts for the Ada program starting in mid-January.
He has a daughter who is a junior at Urbana High now, as well as twin boys in fifth grade. Once she graduates they will make the move to this area.
"To be honest, Ada is very similar to West Liberty and I wanted to be able to coach and see my kids in school," he explained. "I wanted that opportunity again, and am ready to be back at a smaller school."
He also has been an assistant coach at WLS (1996-98), Urbana High School (1995), Springfied South High (1994) and Wittenberg University (1993).
He also served as head baseball coach at WLS from 1998-2013, where his teams compiled a 335-105 record. He was an assistant baseball coach at Bellefontaine High School (2014-18) and at WLS (1997).
"I would like to get back into baseball coaching too at some point," he said.
Smith takes over a slumping Ada program that was 0-3 last year before cancelling the rest of its season due to dwindling roster numbers and safety precautions. In 2018 and 2019, the Bulldogs finished 2-8 each year.
"I think it will take a lot of rolling up the sleeves, doing the work and developing relationships with the kids," said Smith when asked what needs to be done to resuscitate the program.
"We need to get to know each other and earn that trust. Once you do that the wins will take care of themselves, if you follow a certain protocol," he continued. "At the end of the day, it is about making memories these kids can have for the rest of their lives.
"Both programs I took over were struggling before I got there and we left them in much better shape when I left," he noted.
As for filling out his Bulldog football coaching staff, Smith says it will be a combination of "guys I know, and I will also meet with the (current) Ada coaches to put together a staff that is conducive to us."
Ada made the playoffs 11 of 12 seasons from 2006-17 under Mike Fell and Bob Olwin, going to the state semifinals once and quarterfinals twice.
"There is a history of success at Ada, and we want to bring that back," said Smith. "It is about getting in there and letting the kids know who you are.
"There are some challenges, but we can begin implementing things (weight room, etc.) in January and be ready to go by two a days."
