University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Shelly Addison Smith 1994 - Soccer
A two-time Most Valuable Player of the women's soccer team, Shelley Addison Smith was a two-time All-New England selection and a three-time first-team All-North Atlantic Conference pick. Inducted into the UVM Hall of Fame in 2004, she is now the head coach of women's soccer at the University of South Carolina. A two-time National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Northeast Regional All-American, Smith was a second-team selection as a junior and picked up first-team honors as a senior.
Known as a most durable and versatile player, she never missed a game in her four years at UVM, playing and starting in 64 matches as the team went 34-27-3 under coach John Carter during that stretch. A defender in her first two years, partly because of an injury to fellow standout Kelly Martin '93, Smith moved up to midfield for her final two years and led the team in scoring in both 1992 and 1993 while serving as a team captain.
In 1992, she scored seven goals and added three assists for 17 points as the team went 9-7-0, and she followed that up with seven goals and one assist for 15 points as a senior in 1993. For her career, she finished with 14 goals and eight assists for 36 points. She was also named to the North Atlantic Conference Academic Honor Roll in her junior and senior seasons.
After graduating from UVM with a degree in dietetics and sports physiology, Smith joined the coaching ranks and continued to play soccer until 2000. She played professionally for the Sheffield United Football Club in England in 1994, was a member of the Boston Renegades semi-pro team from 1996 to 2000, and was selected to the US Soccer Region I amateur team in 1998. Elected captain of the Renegades in 2000, she was asked to try out for the WUSA, the upstart women's professional soccer league, but chose to focus on her coaching career.
After four seasons as an assistant at Dartmouth, Smith became the head coach at Rhode Island from 1997 to 2000. Smith rebuilt the the Rams' women's soccer program, compiling a 41-35-3 overall record, as she took a program that was 2-16 her first year to 12-6 in her second season. In 2000, Smith coached URI to its best record ever of 15-4-1, while reaching the Atlantic 10 semifinals, a first in school history. The 2000 NSCAA Northeast Region and New England Women's Soccer Intercollegiate Soccer Association (NEWISA) Coach of the Year, Smith was a finalist for the 2000 National Coach of the Year. She was the 1998 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year as well.
In 2001, she was named the head coach of women's soccer at South Carolina of the SEC, one of the toughest women's soccer conferences in the nation. In her first five seasons with the Gamecocks she has twice led the team to the SEC Tournament.
A native of Shaftsbury, Vermont, Smith established and continues to direct a soccer day camp in her hometown. She started the popular camp in 1994.
