Marc Smith tabbed to lead Cambridge girls basketball program

CAMBRIDGE — Looking to jumpstart a struggling girls basketball program, the Cambridge City School District might have found the perfect man for the job in veteran head coach Marc Smith.

Smith was officially approved as the new girls’ basketball coach at the Cambridge City School District special Board of Education meeting last Thursday evening. Smith takes over for Logan McCort who coached the girls’ team to a 4-19 record last season before taking over the Bobcat boys’ program this season.

The Lady Bobcat basketball teams have suffered through six consecutive losing seasons dating back to 2018-2019, with Smith entering as the third new coach in the last four years.

Smith has a proven track record for rebuilding struggling basketball programs throughout his career, and looks forward to tackling this new opportunity with the Lady Bobcats.

“Rebuilding programs who are struggling has always kind of been in my wheelhouse,” Smith said. “I have always been able to take over struggling teams and been able to get them headed in the right direction. With a lot of hard work from players, my coaching staff and the administration we have been able to leave a team better than when I took over.”

Smith brings with him a successful rebuilding résumé

Smith took over a struggling Shenandoah High School boys’ team in 2016 and coached the Zeps for seven seasons. He turned the program back into perennial winners and won consecutive sectional championships in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 when the Zeps finished with a 21-4 record.

Prior to coming to Noble County, Smith led Delphos Jefferson High School for 10 seasons compiling a 116-147 record but finished his last three seasons with a 41-28 record and led the Wildcats to three consecutive sectional championships. The schools previous sectional title came in 1957.

“Cambridge has a long, rich tradition of successful athletic programs,” Smith added. “In recent years, the girls program has struggled to get things turned around. I have a good comfort level coming to Cambridge, during my time at Shenandoah I was able to make some contacts here.”

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“When Jeff Wheeler was hired as the new athletic director here at Cambridge, that was a real positive for me,” Smith continued. “He has a excellent reputation as a top notch AD, and I feel very comfortable with him and the entire Cambridge administration. I’m excited for the opportunity and look forward to getting things turned around for the Lady Bobcats.”

Building relationships job one for Smith

With the late hire, Smith will attempt to get some sort of summer program started. But feels building relationships with his new players will be his most important objective.

Of course with getting a late start, there are a lot of things going on,” Smith said. “Right now working on putting a coaching staff together, and try to get some sort of summer program sort of on the fly. The late start is a barrier of course, but we will try to salvage some sort of plan and figure it out.”

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Smith is planning to hold a meeting with his new players and parents to begin the all important job of building relationships with his new players.

“First thing is to get started building relationships with these young ladies,” Smith said. “For most of them, this will be their third coach in three years. So its important to gain their trust and let them know I have their best interests at heart.”

“Coaching is built on having solid relationships with your players,” Smith added. “The players need to know you have their back so to speak. I love to coach and still feel its my calling, and of course want to win. And we will try like heck to get it done. But its not the only thing, we want to instill discipline, organization, communication, to set a standard we can build our program on.”

KSutton1@gannett.com; X: @KSuttonDJSports; Instagram: kevinsutton_dailyjeffsports

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Veteran coach excited for opportunity to turn around struggling Cambridge