On the eve of his retirement from TTU, Athletics administrator and coach Randy Smith picked up his fourth OVC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year award.

Community and campus friends gathered yesterday to honor Smith during a retirement reception. Smith is stepping down after 18 years on the TTU athletics staff, including 14 years as tennis coach.

Smith, associate athletics director for operations, facilities and capital projects, earned the honor after leading the Golden Eagles to the 2006 OVC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the 2006 O'Reilly OVC Tennis Championship. Tech posted a perfect 9-0 record in league play while going 14-11 overall.

It was only this past January that he returned to coaching following the resignation of coach Aldrin Campos in order to insure that the teams had an uninterrupted opportunity to compete for the league championships. Director of our men's and women's tennis programs from 1988 through 2001, Smith had relinquished his coaching role to serve full-time on the administrative staff.

"Randy Smith is one of the most recognized and well-respected tennis coaches in Ohio Valley Conference history, and we're fortunate that he headed up our teams during the spring season," says Director of Athletics Mark Wilson.

A 1970 Tech graduate, Smith returned to his alma mater in 1988 and immediately led the Golden Eagle men's team to a 20-6 dual match record, a 5-1 mark in the OVC, and second place in the league's tournament.

He was named OVC Coach of the Year in his first season, an honor he repeated the following season when Tech posted a 20-3 record in 1989-90. That team rolled to a perfect 6-0 conference record and captured the OVC tournament championship.
In 1998-99, Smith's men's team captured the OVC tournament title and earned the school's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tennis Tournament.

In all, the Tech men's team compiled a 175-129 win-loss record, including a 65-25 record in conference matches.

Smith also built the Tech women's tennis program into a conference contender, posting an overall 125-132 record in 13 seasons and an impressive 97-52 record during his final seven seasons. Under Smith, the women's tennis team posted a 50-43 win-loss record in OVC matches, taking first place in 1998-99 and advancing to the NCAA Tennis Tournament for the first time in school history. The women's team also finished second in the OVC in four of his last six seasons.

In 1999, he was named both the OVC Men's and Women's Tennis Coach of the Year, giving him four such honors.

End-of-the-season conference honors were announced last week. Among athletes named to the men's All-OVC first team was TTU student Borja Zarco of Madrid, Spain. Student Tiago Gilioli of Sao Paolo, Brazil, was named to the men's second team. On the women's All-OVC second team are Alet Boonzaaier of Windhoek, Namibia, and Margot Carter of Winchester, U.K.