Former C-I baseball coach Smrekar recognized with double awards

Former Cambridge-Isanti Bluejacket head baseball coach Todd Smrekar is the recipient of a pair of statewide accolades for his years of coaching the sport.

Last weekend, Smrekar was formally inducted into the 2020 Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The ceremony was a combination of the 2020 and 2021 Halls of Fame since the 2020 ceremony had to be canceled due to COVID.

The second honor for Smrekar will be awarded to him on Nov. 19 as part of the Minnesota Twins Diamond Awards, where he will receive the 2021 Terry Ryan Play Ball! Minnesota Award. This award is voted upon by founding members of Play Ball! Minnesota. It is awarded to a member of the upper midwest baseball and softball community who has been a major leader at the youth level. 

The Diamond Club Awards will be broadcast on Bally Sports North at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19.

Smrekar’s coaching career encompassed 30 years, with more than 20 of those as head baseball coach of Cambridge-Isanti, which is also his alma mater as a member of CIHS’s Class of 1989.

During his 21 seasons with the Jackets, his teams earned 210 wins, with the highlight being the 2008 season, where the Jackets won the Mississippi 8 Conference Championship and Section 7AAA runners-up. He retired from coaching after the 2017 season, having coached the team more years than any other baseball coach in C-I history. He has since moved to Florida.

Braaten named Assistant Coach of the Year

 At the same ceremony as Smrekar was inducted into the H.O.F., current Bluejacket assistant baseball coach Matt Braaten was recognized as Assistant Coach of the Year by the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association.

Braaten is also an assistant coach for the Bluejacket football team and was a long-standing assistant coach for the girls basketball team.