BJ Smith is in his ninth season as Head Coach for the Highland women's basketball team.
He led the Scotties to a 35-1 season in 2017-18 in which the team finished third at the NJCAA Division II National tournament. Smith owns two KJCCC titles, three Region titles and three National tournament appearances as Highland coach (2013 - 5th place; 2014 - 2nd place & 2018 - 3rd place). Most recently Smith guided the Scotties to a 24-5 record and Region VI runner-up finish in the 2018-19 season.
Smith in his tenure at Highland has etched his name in the record books as he is the winningest coach in program history with a 228-35 record while at Highland including a 126-8 mark at home and 66-23 record in KJCCC play (numbers are entering 2019-20 season). He has guided the Scotties to the five best seasons in school history including last year's 35-1 mark which is the best in a single season; a season which saw the Scotties break 10 team single season records & several individual single season and career records, while winning the his first outright KJCCC title along with winning the Region VI title and taking third place at NJCAA DII National tournament.
In BJ Smith’s initial season as the Highland head coach, the Scotties finished with a record of 28-4 in 2011-12, finished second in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, achieved a top five national ranking for most of the season, and had the Jayhawk Conference Player of the Year. For those accomplishments, Smith was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year.
He guided the Scotties first National tournament in 30 years and a 5th place finish in 2013, women's head coach BJ Smith led the Scotties to their then best season in school history (33-3), getting their first ever Jayhawk Conference Championship, back-to-back Region Championships and National Runner-up at the 2014 NJCAA Tournament. The Scotties were ranked #1 in the Nation for a period of time, as well as being in the top 5 all season long. For his efforts, Smith was named the 2013 and 2014 Region 6 Coach of the Year.
While at Highland, Smith has coached 13 All-Americans, 20 All-Conference players, 23 All-Region players, three KJCCC Players of the Year and three KJCCC Freshman of the Year. He has also sent 13 players to Division I programs and 32 players to four-year programs and a few more to professional teams overseas.
As a community college head coach, Smith is has five national tournament appearances and two National Runner-up finishes.
Smith came to Highland with a tremendous track record of success as a coach and motivator. Smith has coached players from all over the world who have made All-American teams, been drafted into the WNBA, played in the Olympics, as well as playing professionally overseas.
Coach Smith has been a coach at every level (high school, community college, NAIA, NCAA Division I) and has proven the ability to teach. As the head coach at Southeast Missouri State, he led the Redhawks to their four most successful NCAA Division I seasons in the history of the program and an Ohio Valley Championship, along with qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time in the history of the school. As a community college coach at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (99-7), he developed one of the top programs in the country, winning the powerful Bi-State Conference three years in a row as well as finishing fourth in the country in 2000 and National Runner-up in 2002. He also started the men's and women's track and cross-country programs at Phillips University. They both finished in the top 20 nationally in their first year.
His teams have been ranked #1 in the NJCAA poll for 14 weeks. He has been named WBCA National Coach of the year, Kansas Basketball Coaches association coach of the year, as well as Region and Conference Coach of the year eight times.
As a community college head coach, Smith has graduated 100% of his players who have come to play for him as freshmen and had them go on to play at places like Oklahoma, Memphis, Depaul, Arkansas State, and numerous other universities across the country. He also was co-founder of the Oklahoma Indian All-State Games, has done numerous free basketball clinics not only in his native Oklahoma, but in New Zealand and Australia. He developed reading in schools programs at Southeast Missouri State as well as Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. He has spoken at the Johnson Omalley Native American Leadership Program in Tahlequah, Oklahoma as well as numerous other schools and youth groups on the value of education.
After running track his freshman year at Eastern Oklahoma College, he transferred to play basketball for former Huskie, Ron Brown at Northern Oklahoma College. From there Smith finished his playing career at Southwestern Kansas where he was selected to play in the District 3 All-Star game his senior year.
