A historic double track and field title for Powell High School came with additional honors for coach Scott Smith, who earned Spring Coach of the Year for both teams in the 2023 season.

“It is always an honor to receive these awards and it speaks more toward the entire staff’s collective work than just the head coach,” Smith said. “I’ve been very blessed to be able to work with not only a great group of kids that made it happen, but to also get to work with such great people on the staff.”

This is the third year in a row that Smith has earned the girls’ coach of the year, adding the boys honor this year.

Alongside Smith, there are assistant coaches of the year for the sport of track and field, but only two assistant coaches across all classes are given the honor each year.

“Getting named assistant coach of the year is much harder than head coaches,” Smith said. “Win the title, the head coach usually gets the award and there are eight of them. Assistant coach of the year is awarded to only two people and all that were nominated this year were deserving.”

He said that each of the assistant coaches did a great job this past season in their own ways, with some kids scoring a lot of points at state while some brought young kids a long way that will set them up for success in the future.

“I can honestly say that there was great improvement in all areas of our team as the season progressed because the kids were well coached and because the kids worked really hard and smart,” Smith said.

The coaching staff had some tough decisions to make this season, which included shifting around athletes into new events late in the season despite some of those athletes competing in the event for the first time ever or in several years.

“Our staff communicates well with each other and we really try to put kids in the situations we feel they will be successful in based on how they have performed and what the competition looks like in each of the events,” Smith said.

He said the coaching staff looks to get kids out to compete in what they love doing, pushing them to become the best they can be while getting as many medals at regionals and state.

The teams both return talent heading into next year, but Smith knows there will be challenges moving forward if the teams want to continue winning titles.

“Both boys and girls have a good nucleus of talent coming back, but both also graduated a lot of points and really good leaders, so getting both to repeat will be very challenging — but certainly not out of the question,” Smith said.

Smith, alongside other coaches, was honored this past week in Casper during the annual Wyoming Coaches Association awards ceremony and All-Star weekend in Casper.