The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT March 20, 2010

David vs. Goliath.

It’s the age-old story about the little guy coming up to defeat the big guy when it counts.

However, for Lakeland High graduate Jack Smith, it isn’t the first time he’s been face to face with a huge battle before.

MOST PEOPLE in the Coeur d’Alene/Rathdrum area know Smith for his days on the sporting scene at Lakeland High between 1975 and 1979, playing every sport imaginable from baseball, football and boxing.

Smith also competed on the track team for North Idaho College in the pole vault in 1980 and 1981.

Smith was in training to become a professional boxer when he took his first girls basketball coaching job at Virginia City in 1987, while balancing a full-time job at the then-MGM Grand Casino in Reno, Nev.

Smith is the son of Moe Smith, who promotes fights for the Coeur d’Alene Casino House of Fury and trains and helps coach Favio Medina. In his first season as coach in Lowry of Winnemucca, Nev., Jack’s team started 1-10 before going on a 17-game winning streak and playing its way into the state title game.

On Feb. 28, Lowry defeated conference rival Spring Creek in the state title game at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno.

“We were considered a 200-1 dog in the tournament,” Smith said of his team’s chances. “The other team from our league hadn’t lost a game in the last two years. They had blown us out in the state finals the previous year and beat us in the zone (regional) championships and were averaging 25 points a win.”

Once the tournament started, everyone had already given the title to Spring Creek, without a tournament game even being played.

“We went to state and the Reno newspaper was giving the title to Spring Creek,” Smith said. “It was like it was a done deal.”

Unfortunately for the Spartans, the tournament continued.

LOWRY HIGH finished off the upset of Spring Creek by a 36-35 score to win the girls tournament. The following day, the Elko newspaper had called the win an upset of monumental proportions.

“I joked with my friends after the game and they told me to settle down,” Smith said. “I was telling them this was bigger than Lake Placid — the next day, they had it all over their paper. They had a columnist that compared the game to that game and called it ‘the shock heard around the state.’ There was a lot of disbelief across the state.”

SINCE THAT game, both Smith and the school have received some acclaim, with Smith earning the state coach of the year award and the team on the short list of the tentative schedule for the annual Coeur d’Alene Holiday Inn Express Invitational at North Idaho College in December.

“We’ve got to get it past some hurdles, but I’m real excited to get back up there,” Smith said. “I’m real excited to come back and see some of my former teammates and friends from that area. After we won the title, Al (Williams) was the first person I e-mailed. I’m really chomping at the bit to get up there.”

The coaching roads have almost brought him back to Kootenai County in the past, but have never panned out.

“I was one of the final two candidates for the Post Falls job in 1999,” Smith said. “I’ve been thinking a lot more about it over the years, but never could leave Nevada. I’ve come a few minutes away from coming back, though.”

Wherever Smith winds up coaching, you can always count on his teams always having a puncher’s chance.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by phone at 664-0239 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.