Men’s Basketball Head Coach Miles Smith helps to build a tightknit program

By Coleen Dee Berry

All they had to do was step out onto the court to make history. On Nov. 15, 2014, the Wilson College men’s basketball team competed in a tournament hosted by Penn State Mont Alto for its historic first game wearing Wilson blue.

 

Other firsts followed: the team chalked up its first win against Christendom College and its first North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) win against Bryn Athyn College. It was coach Miles Smith’s first season as a head basketball coach and the first year coaching for assistant Ben Schlotter. “We all went through this first time thing together. It was a learning experience for everyone,” Smith said of the coaching staff and the team.

The season flashed by with thrilling finishes and heartbreaking losses, ending with a 3-19 record. But the win-loss record didn’t seem to matter that much to the fans. The Wilson community wholeheartedly embraced its new team.

“Everyone would stand up (at home games) and applaud even though we lost,” Schlotter said. “That threw me at first—they were clapping after a loss. To me, that meant that the players must be doing well off the court to get that type of a reaction.”

Wilson women have been playing NCAA basketball since the College joined the NCAA Division III in 1995.The women’s team advanced to the Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference playoffs four times before Wilson athletics joined the NEAC in 2007.

The addition of men’s athletics teams came as part of the Wilson Today plan, approved by the Board of Trustees in early 2013, which extended coeducation to the residential undergraduate program. To be in compliance with Title IX and NCAA Division III, Wilson must field five men’s teams by 2016. In addition to basketball, golf, soccer, cross country and volleyball round out the new men’s sports offerings.

The men’s basketball team’s journey actually began more than 18 months prior to that first game in Mont Alto. The key to building the team was the hiring of Smith in February 2013. His dual mission: to recruit and build Wilson’s first men’s team while he did his other, full-time job as an admissions counselor.

“From day one, Wilson was looking for someone who could be the basketball coach, recruit and handle admissions for traditional students,” said Patty Beidel, director of admissions. ”We knew it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but fortunately for us, Miles had those skill sets, that combination.”

College administrators wanted to give Smith plenty of time to form the new team. “We hired Coach Smith a year and a half before the first season so that he could get to know the community and learn about Wilson,” said Lori Frey, director of athletics. “From a coaching point of view, it must have killed him to wait that long, but I think it’s paid off in the way he has built a team of student-athletes.”

Smith, who had been first assistant coach at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), came to Wilson with a concrete plan. He wanted to run the Princeton offense—an offense that relies on an unselfish team effort, not one or two stars. Players must have a good understanding of the game and know how to read the defense.

But more than that, Smith wanted to build a team based on his own deep beliefs in the importance of a college education and in the value of community service. “My goal is not just to win basketball games. My goal is to mold young men into successful role models,” Smith said. “I want them to graduate and go off and do amazing things in their careers. It’s more than just the basketball.”   

For Wilson, it was definitely the right mindset. “We’re a Division III school. We’re not talking about a ‘win at all cost’ type of environment. Academics come first,” Beidel said. “Miles gets it. He’s good at passing that along to his players.”

For those first 18 months, Smith would juggle his traditional undergraduate student admissions work with the task of building a basketball team from scratch. His recruitment efforts took the form of hundreds of emails, countless phone calls, scores of visits to high school gyms from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Florida—and “many, many cups of coffee,” he recalled.

Smith used the contacts that he made as first assistant coach at TCNJ and as assistant coach at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey. He scoured YouTube videos of teams and targeted players that he liked. He attended AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) games and checked out the action at the area high school summer leagues.

Smith was upfront with recruits that committing to Wilson meant venturing into uncharted territory. “I tell my guys right away, any candidate that’s come up on a visit—if you’re looking for a program that has a rich tradition and history in men’s athletics, then look elsewhere,” Smith said. “But if you want to be history and tradition, then this is the place for you.”

Selling Wilson on the road was easy, according to Smith. The small class sizes and the College’s academic reputation were big pluses. Many of the players he spoke to were intrigued by the 3+1 programs, particularly in accounting.

“Parents know I’m not there just as a basketball coach and a recruiter, but that my goal is to have their son graduate and be successful in whatever career he chooses,” Smith said of his visits with potential players. “The lure of Wilson is not the basketball program—it’s the Master of Accountancy, the English program. It’s the sciences and the business department, not the basketball program. And that’s my goal for all my players. The academics are my main concern.”

Smith also knew that to be competitive, he could not field an entire team of first-year students. He needed a few transfer students to lend on-court experience.

One of the students he reached out to was Rahim Bunch, a junior guard from Rutgers-Newark. Bunch had been recruited by Smith (unsuccessfully) when Smith was at TCNJ and Bunch was playing for Egg Harbor Township High School in New Jersey.  “I wasn’t happy at Rutgers and so I decided I wanted to play for Coach Smith at Wilson,” Bunch said. “I like his coaching style. He lets you play through your mistakes and helps you learn from them. He doesn’t really yell, he talks to you, he teaches you, he’s always mentoring you.”

Bunch, who went on to become one of the team’s top scorers despite being injured for several games, has found that Wilson’s size suits him. “At Rutgers, we had like 100 or more kids in class and it kind of encouraged you to sit in the back row with your friends and just go through the motions,” Bunch said. “Here, I get personal attention from the professors and I’m really learning.”

When the 2014-15 school year began, Smith had 11 players—three transfers and the rest first-years. (NCAA rules allow for a maximum of 15 players.)

Even before the season started, Smith put into practice his community service requirements, which all Wilson student-athletes—male and female—must meet (see related story on page 38). Men’s basketball players participated at the Read Out Loud program in the Chambersburg elementary schools, and also helped with a project at NETwork Ministries in Chambersburg.

Several of the players spent a day interacting with middle school students and helping to clear out a building on Hollywell Avenue that NETwork plans to use as an arts and teen center. NETwork Executive Director Benjamin Raber stressed that it is important for college students to give back to the community. “Meeting the players also has a positive impact on the middle school kids, who see these college kids and it starts them thinking about furthering their education—that they can also go to college when they graduate high school,” Raber said.  

At the Read Out Loud program, guard Rasul Jackson ’18 found his calling. “I did two readings and by the end of the second program, it just showed me how much I liked working with kids,” he said. “I had never really considered making it a career until that moment.” He has since switched his major from business to early childhood education.

As basketball practices began, players discovered their coach was not one to direct from the sidelines. Smith, who played basketball in high school and at Johnson State College in Vermont, was out on the court during practice, demonstrating drills and giving players hands-on advice.

And at the end of each session, he gave his players the same message: Study hard, focus on your schoolwork and keep your grades up so you can play.

“He’s trying to prepare us for more than just basketball. He has our future in mind,” Bunch said. “He reminds us that basketball isn’t always going to be there for us and that we have to prepare for real life. He has our best interests at heart.”

Once games began, players and spectators alike discovered another side to Smith. Associate Professor of Fine Arts Robert Dickson put it this way: “We would watch Miles’ evil twin come out during the games.” Smith is fiery, passionate and loud, exhorting his players, pacing the sidelines, waving his arms. “Miles is usually so calm and collected in his admissions role. He’s really intense on the sidelines,” said Lorie Helman, student development office manager.

“His passion really comes through at the games. He inspires the team to play better,” said Wilson President Barbara K. Mistick. “They were very competitive and I’m darn proud of them.”

That’s the one word everyone uses to describe Wilson’s first season of men’s basketball: competitive.

“They are fast, they are good and they bring a new level of enthusiasm to each game,” said Frey. “They are competitive and fun to watch.”

“The kids were generally hustling, working hard, and you have a coach who is obviously working as hard as he can to instill his philosophy in his athletes,” said Gary Martin, a color commentator on ESPN Radio 1380 and basketball coach at Greencastle-Antrim Senior High School. “The team was a pretty cohesive unit and in a lot of games to the end, very competitive.”

But competitive was not the word the Wilson coaches really wanted to hear. “It’s nice everyone says you were really competitive, but we wanted to do so much more. It was a disappointing season,” said Schlotter. Both Smith and Schlotter thought the team had the potential to make the NEAC playoffs.

While watching Wilson’s fast-break offense may have been exciting from a fan’s standpoint, both coaches agree it wasn’t the deliberate pace of the Princeton offense they had planned. And for a team that at times only had eight players suiting up for a game (due to injuries), the fast pace and shallow bench meant the players often wore themselves out in games that were within their reach.

Six of the team’s losses were by a margin of seven points or less. Smith shoulders the blame for the losses. “I have to work harder at coaching. This year was ‘teach, teach, teach.’ Next season it will be ‘intensity, intensity, intensity,’ ” Smith said. “We have to get better at defense. We have to be better at free throws. We have to become more disciplined.”

But another description of the team works to its benefit: good chemistry. “We all stuck together even though we lost a lot of games,” said forward Ben Holl ’18. “There wasn’t a lot of negativity. That’s really rare for a lot of college teams. We’re a tightknit group.” He also credits Smith. “The coach helped keep us together.”

Smith, Schlotter and team members are grateful for the support of the Wilson faculty and staff, as well as from their women basketball counterparts. Smith and Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jared Trulear developed a mutual support system. “We would bounce basketball ideas off each other on the bus to away games,” Trulear said.

Now recruitment starts again for the next basketball season—the phone calls, the high school visits, the cups of coffee. Smith said he hopes that all his current players return in the fall, and his goal is to add more players so that the team can benefit from a full bench.

The Wilson community expresses confidence in Smith. “He is the best role model ever that we could have hired for the students and for his team,” Beidel said.

Mistick praised Smith’s dedication to Wilson and its philosophy. ”When you’re committed to a place, you have an understanding of where that place is going, where the quest is. People who understand a quest seek out challenge and constantly find ways to perform successfully,” she said. “Miles understands our quest to be a thriving institution and he understands he can play a big role in helping us thrive, not just as an admissions counselor, but also as a coach.”

For Smith—who was recognized in 2014 with the James McKeever Promising Professional Award at the Pennsylvania Association for College Admission Counseling Conference—there is no doubt in his mind that he has found a home at Wilson.

“Players have asked me if I will be here for all four of their years. I tell them it’s not like I’m going to be gone in two to three years. I have a chance to stay and build something here,” Smith said. “Maybe I could end up with my name on a field house here. I believe Wilson has the potential for great things and I want to help make those things happen.”