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Phil Smith
Smith enters his 19th season at the helm of the McDaniel softball program, replacing hall-of-famer George Dix, who retired after completing one of Division III softball’s more remarkable coaching careers, after the 2004 Centennial Conference (CC) championship season.
Smith enters the 2023 season with a 339-320-2 record to join Dix as the only Green Terror softball coaches to join the century club. He joined Dix in the 300-win club in 2019 with a 5-4, nine-inning victory over Farmingdale State on Mar. 20, 2019. On Mar. 14, 2022, his squad recorded a 7-6 win over Wheaton (Mass.) and a 6-3 win over Ripon for career wins 325 and 326, passing Dix to become the all-time winningest coach in program history.
After making two CC tournament appearances in his first seven years at the helm, Smith made a return trip in 2012 after garnering the conference regular-season title and has been a perennial playoff team, reaching the postseason in seven of the last eight years. For just the fourth time in the 12-year history of the CC tournament, the top seed was able to hold serve and McDaniel posted the conference’s first championship-game run-rule victory, downing Washington 9-0 in six innings to claim the program’s sixth title overall.
Riding the right arm of CC Pitcher of the Year Caroline Brehm, Smith’s Green Terror squad entered the NCAA tournament as the eighth seed in the Newport News Regional and made a magical run through the bracket. After dropping its first game to top-ranked Emory, the Green Terror recorded a 10th-inning walkoff win over Messiah, a 14-inning marathon victory over Ferrum, and a two-out, two-strike, bottom-of-the-seventh walkoff grand slam over Salisbury before falling to host and second-seeded Christopher Newport. Brehm threw every pitch of the regional to end her rookie season with a program- and conference-record 377 strikeouts.
Smith matched Dix’s best season ever with 30 wins in 2012 before being added as a full-time staff member for the first time, charged with also overseeing the College’s athletics facilities. The mentor has always taken pride in a first-class softball facility and will now extend that passion to the entire department in his new position.
Smith’s squad returned to the CC tournament and earned bids to the ECAC South tournament in both 2013 and 2014.
In 2015, Smith once again returned his Green Terror team to the top of the conference. Earning the regular-season title with a 14-2 conference mark, McDaniel held serve to win the tournament championship. Behind four-time CC Pitcher of the Year Brehm and seven all-conference selections – the most in more than a decade – the Green Terror finished with a 29-12 mark.
Smith has coached 65 all-conference selections over his first 18 years, including an unprecedented six first-team selections in 2018.
Prior to his arrival at McDaniel, Smith coached softball in various capacities since 1998, including coaching at South Western High School in Hanover from 2000-03. Smith has been involved in the Junior Olympic-Amateur Softball Association (ASA) travel softball programs in York County, Pa. He also coached the 23-and-under York County College All-Star team, which played against competition that included the Greek Olympic Team.
The 1986 graduate of Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, N.C., was an all-conference baseball player and played a season in the minor leagues.
A graduate of Westminster High School, he was an all-area football player and selected to the first Maryland Crown all-state baseball team in 1982.
Smith boasts an ASA certification as coach and instructor, and is a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), where he serves on the Camp & Clinic committee. Over the past several years, he has conducted and instructed at several clinics and camps throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, including the Green Terror Softball summer camps and fall/winter clinics. Smith also works camps and clinics for FCA, including heading up the softball portion at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Camps.
Smith lives in Hanover, Pa., with his wife Paula. They have three daughters, Brianna, who graduated from California (Pa.) in 2009, Tiffani, who graduated from Liberty in 2011, and Allysia, who graduated from McDaniel in 2016.
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