NEWTOWN – Kim Davis-Smith is a woman who wears many hats.
Always on the go, Davis-Smith is a wife and a mother first and foremost, and for the last 23 years has kept busy with her career as an occupational therapist.
One of her main loves in life, however, has been the game of basketball.
As a player, she was a part of Burch High School's powerhouse teams of the early 1990s, winning the 1990 Class A state championship as a sophomore.
She later went on to play collegiately at Robert Morris and on then on the Big East Conference stage at WVU.
Basketball then took a bit of a back seat for a while.
Despite all of the hustle and bustle rat race of daily life basketball, however, has always been there.
“I've been around the game for awhile and it's part of my DNA,” Davis-Smith said.
Over the last three years, she's brought her love of the game to Mingo Central High School where she's helped facilitate a major turnaround with the hoop program as the Lady Miners' head coach.
Coaching basketball always seemed to be her destiny.
She dabbled in it over the years, helping out as an assistant coach at Burch and also coaching in various leagues and also in AAU.
Someday she would be a high school head coach.
That opportunity almost came to her 11 years ago.
With the formation of the new Mingo Central High School after the closure and consolidation of the former Burch, Gilbert, Williamson and Matewan high schools in Mingo County, the girls' basketball job was open and was dangled before her.
She passed.
For now.
“Life got in the way, so to speak, with marriage and kids and work,” she said.
When the Lady Miners' job came open again in 2019 she jumped at the chance and was hired.
She went right to work.
The turnaround was immediate.
Mingo Central enjoyed a 16-8 season in her first roundball campaign in 2019-20, improving from a 5-14 showing a year before her arrival.
The Lady Miners had a stacked team that year but tasted disappointment in the post-season, falling 58-49 to Lincoln County – a team it had beaten during the regular season – in sectional play.
“That first year, we had so much talent on that team,” Davis-Smith said. “We just did not achieve though, losing in the first round of the sectionals. That was disappointing.”
Season Two, in the COVID-delayed and condensed 2021 campaign, Mingo Central won both its sectional and regional championships and advanced to the Class AA state tournament, eventually falling 60-32 to Wyoming East at the Charleston Coliseum and closing out with a 9-5 mark.
The success continued last season.
Despite having no seniors, and fielding a roster with eight freshmen, Mingo Central won its second straight sectional crown with a thrilling 47-45 victory on the road at Chapmanville.
Mingo Central would finish with a 16-9 mark and one game short of a second straight state tourney berth after falling 50-36 to Summers County in the regional final atop Miner Mountain.
“It's been a pretty amazing journey so far,” Davis-Smith said. “It was tough losing at home last year in the regional championship for a chance to go to Charleston but when you reflect back to what we have achieved the last three years it's been pretty good.”
The sectional championship heroics was the highwater mark.
Chapmanville had beaten Mingo Central twice during the regular season – 60-56 at home in January on a snowy night on Miner Mountain, and a week later falling 49-39 on the road to the Lady Tigers.
“Looking back, we had to replace Jenna Wagoner and Scarlet Thomason and those were two All-State players and that was a huge loss,” Davis-Smith said. “Our expectations were still really high but we were really young and our schedule wasn't the easiest. But we were pleased winning back-to-back sectional championships. Winning in the sectional championship game last year at Chapmanville was big. It was a huge win because we were down by four points with 40 seconds left.”
Several Lady Miners, particularly their younger players, stepped up last season.
Davis-Smith's daughter, freshman Addie Smith, had an outstanding roundball campaign, eventually being named Class AA First-Team All-State by the media.
Addie Smith, a 5-foot-5 point guard, averaged 20.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals last season, sinking 78% of her foul shots. She had gained varsity ball experience the year before as an eighth-grader at Belfry, Ky.
She started off with a bang at MCHS.
In her first game with Mingo Central she poured in 31 points in a 75-22 road victory at Phelps, Ky.
“I've coached her for a long time,” Davis-Smith said. “Basketball is a lot of who I am. She's a good player. She had a tremendous year last year. I wasn't sure that she would have that big of a role last year but she did. Once we got halfway through the middle of the season she was getting box-and-one defense. It was a challenge for our team because we're having to create some different kinds of offensive sets for her to be able to score. It's pretty awesome to get to coach her. She's a good kid and she works really hard.”
Addie Smith was battling back from an injury just prior to the Chapmanville game.
“Addie did not practice and did not play in the sectional game prior to that prior to the Chapmanville game,” Davis-Smith said. “She had a pretty significant ankle injury. We weren't sure that she was going to get to play at all. She wasn't 100 percent in the sectional final.”
Several other Lady Miners stepped up last season.
Madisyn Curry, a 5-10 junior forward, was a Class AA Honorable Mention All-State pick.
Alyssa Davis (5-9 junior G/F), Dalaney Grimmett (5-6 freshman guard), Bella Hall (5-4 freshman guard), Megan Adkins (5-8 junior guard) and several others played key roles as well.
Adkins, Alyssa Davis and Curry were the three returning starters.
“I am proud of this team,” Davis-Smith said. “We had role players in Dalaney Grimmett and Bella Hall, a duo of freshmen who kind of stepped in. That's a huge jump from middle school to high school. They were asked to do things as freshmen that freshmen necessarily are’nt asked to do. Addie did too, but she had the experience of playing at Belfry the year before as an eighth-grader and game is experience is something that you cannot replace.”
After the regional loss to Summers County, Davis-Smith made her young team come back out of the locker room to watch them cut down the nets.
“I wanted them to know and remember what this feels like,” Davis-Smith said.
That competitive nature goes back to her high school days.
Davis-Smith played on Burch High School's 1990 Class A state championship team as a sophomore, and on the state runner-up squad the following year in her junior season.
The '90 team, led by top scorer Tammy Rife (22 ppg.) became to be known as the “Bad Girls.” The other starters were Kelly Caudill (15 ppg), Shelly Sizemore (13 ppg.), Kerri Goff and Tonya Rife, the team's 5 foot 7 inches center.
Caudill would pour in 29 points in Burch's 66-53 opening round win over Parkersburg Catholic in the 1990 state tourney.
The Burch '90 team finished 25-2, topping Montcalm, 52-48, in the state championship game. A year later, undefeated Burch was upended 39-38 in the state finals by Parkersburg Catholic and closed out with a 24-1 record.
During the Lady Bulldogs' hey day, Burch once rode an incredible 43-game winning streak.
“I was fortunate enough to win a state championship and we were runner-up by junior year. There were four of us who made it to the all-tournament team in 1991 and we lost in the championship game to Parkersburg Catholic by one point, Kelly Caudill tore her ACL in the semifinal game and was one of our leading scorers. That was a significant loss for us. We were heartbroken.”
Davis-Smith played for legendary coaches and brothers Mike and Bill Smith, no relation, at Burch.
The late Bill Smith, who passed away in 2014, was head coach of the Lady Bulldogs for 29 years, leading the team to nine state tournament appearances in his tenure.
Mike Smith was an assistant girls' basketball coach at Burch under Bill Smith for 15 years, and also led the Bulldog boys' basketball team to Class A state titles in 1991 and 1993 and six state tourney appearances.
“We had quite a run during that time,” said Davis-Smith, a 1993 Burch High School graduate. “It was great winning it and those are moments that you just can't take away. I had a good high school career.”
Girls' basketball has changed a lot since the early 1990s, when the hair was big and the shorts were shorter.
There was a lot of hairspray being sprayed around in the locker room.
“For sure, the hairspray. There was tons of hairspray,” Davis-Smith said, laughing. “And the short shorts. The shorts were definitely short. That's what it was all about. It's all coming back around. It's all kind of funny.”
It's come full circle for Davis-Smith now as a coach.
Mike Smith is one of her assistant coaches at Mingo Central.
She said having her old coach with her on the bench has been a huge help.
“I say this all the time. No one does scouting reports like him,” Davis-Smith said. “I know things have changed a lot in the world of basketball but scouting has not changed. He does 20 to 30 page scouting reports. He is a wealth of knowledge and I'm super glad to have him as well as Jeremy Davis (no relation) my other assistant coach. We have the best staff. Jeremy has a good rapport with everyone. He coached Addie in middle school as well.”
Two seasons ago, Mingo Central was led by senior All-Staters Scarlet Thomason and point guard Jenna Wagoner. Thomason was a 1,000-point scorer.
Davis-Smith would make a return to the state tournament, but this time as a coach, in 2021.
“It really was a great experience to go to the state tournament and to coach in Charleston,” Davis-Smith said. “Mike Smith, one of my assistant coaches, was an assistant coach when I was a player. That was tremendous and to be able to experience that with him. He came out of retirement of 16 years to come back to coach and that was huge. It was a huge moment for me. It was exciting. Hopefully we can get back there. It's always our goal, to go to Charleston in March.”
Davis-Smith later played collegiate basketball at Robert Morris, then transferred to WVU, where she played for the Mountaineers from 1995-97.
“We played in the Big East and got to travel. We saw it all – got to see Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and all of the big players and got to play against all of those good Big East women's teams, including U Conn and Coach Gino (Auriemma).”
Davis-Smith is a bit unique being a female coach.
That's a strange statement with this year being the 50th anniversary of the US Government's landmark Title IX legislation which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
The majority of high school girls' basketball coaches in the state of West Virginia are still men.
Davis-Smith is among a handful of southern West Virginia women who are head girls' basketball coaches at the varsity level.
Highly successful Wyoming East girls' basketball coach Angie Boninsegna, winner of a pair of state championships and several runner-up finishes, Chapmanville's Kristina Gore and Liberty Raleigh's Madeline Philogene also come to mind.
“It's a strange thing,” Davis-Smith said when asked about the lack of female head coaches. “I was asked to take the Mingo Central job a long time ago when the school first opened. For women, I think that it's a little bit different ballgame. We have to wear many different hats. Even if you love the game sometimes the priority is your family and your work. My issue is that I don't work in the school system and for me, it's definitely a challenge with work, coaching and also when I do home health. Trying to manage everything when you are not in one spot is a big challenge for me.
“If you are going to do the job correctly it's going to take a lot of time including all of the aspects in your life. For some women, you have to make that decision. I have a great support system and I couldn't do it without my parents and without my husband who is sometimes agreeable to help with the laundry and do things at home.”
Heading into the summer three-week practice period in June and forward to the upcoming 2022-23 season, the goal is simple.
Continue to build the program and not stop fighting.
“I've always been the kid from Mingo who I think sometimes gets overlooked because of where you live or where you are from so this has been a great opportunity for me,” Davis-Smith said. “When the job came open again I thought that it was time for me to take it and really try to invest back into the kids of Mingo County.”
