Artie Smith
Assistant Coach
Phone: 255-9782
Email:
acs1@cornell.edu
Artie Smith, who also serves as an assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell, enters his 12th season as a cross country and track coach at his alma mater in 2010-11. During his tenure with the Big Red, he has helped guide the women’s cross country team to an NCAA appearance and four ECAC championships, and the women’s track and field team to 15 of the past 18 Heptagonal titles. In addition, five female harriers have qualified individually for the NCAA cross country championships and 19 women have competed at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Those Cornellians have earned fifteen All-America accolades.
During the indoor and outdoor seasons, Smith works most closely with the women’s long distance runners. Over the past seven years, the Cornell women have had significant success at the national level in these events as two steeplechasers (Robyn Ellerbrock ’07 in 2007 and Stephanie Pancoast ’10 in 2009 and 2010) and three 5000 meter runners (Kate Boyles ’05, Emily McCabe ’06 and Toni-Lynn Salucci ’07) competed at the outdoor NCAA Finals. These runners have earned three ECAC individual titles on the track and in cross country, three ECAC runner-up finishes in track, two individual Penn Relays victories to go along with a pair of Penn Relays runner-up showings, and three Heps championships while setting several school records.
Before returning to Cornell, Smith spent three years as a graduate assistant at Duke University, where he worked with the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams. In 1998, Smith’s third season as an assistant, the Duke men qualified for the NCAA cross country championships for the first time since 1971 and saw their first-ever individual NCAA qualifier on the women’s side. During the track season, Smith worked with the middle distance and distance groups at Duke.
A coach at Cornell since 1999, Smith completed his Ph.D. in history from Duke University in 2006. His dissertation, which utilizes oral history as well as traditional documentary sources, is entitled “Coaching and Community During Jim Crow: A History of the Golden Era of the CIAA,” and tells the story of the first intercollegiate athletic conference among Historically Black Colleges. He earned his master’s degree in history from Duke in 1998, writing a thesis that explores the role of sport in African American communities during Jim Crow. Smith also has USATF Level I and Level II (endurance) coaching certificates.
Since 1997, Smith has served as a consultant with CBS, NBC, USA and ESPN in the coverage of the Penn Relays, the NCAA championships, the USATF championships and the Olympic Trials, among other meets. Smith also helps administer the Big Red’s summer cross country and track and field camps as well as Cornell’s home cross country and track meets. As a Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, Smith works closely with undergraduate students in shaping their curriculum and in navigating the academic environment at Cornell to go along with other academic administrative duties.
A 1996 cum laude graduate of Cornell with a double major in history and Africana studies, Smith captained the Big Red cross country squad his senior year and was president of the Red Key Athletic Honorary Society. As an athlete for the Big Red cross country and track teams, he was the recipient of the John Reif Memorial Award, the John Moakley Award and the Clarence Spindler Award while competing in the distance events.
A native of Oak Park, Ill., Artie is single and resides in Ithaca.
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