Chad SmithJimmy Rollins, assistant coach for the past five seasons, has been named interim head coach. Lindenwood announced it is mounting a national search for Smith's replacement.
Smith had been part of the Lindenwood Lions mat program as an athlete and coach for most of the millennium (except for one season when he accepted a high school coaching job in Virginia). A native of the St. Louis area, Smith was a two-time Missouri high school state champ at Oakville High who came to Lindenwood after wrestling at St. Louis Community College-Meramec.
Smith earned All-American honors on the 2002 Lindenwood team which won the program's first NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) National Championship. The following season, Smith not only won an individual NAIA national championship, but was also named a NAIA Scholar-Athlete, and was Lindenwood's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2003.
Smith stayed with the program as a graduate assistant coach, and helped the team win another national title in 2005. After coaching high school wrestling for one season in 2006-07, he returned to Lindenwood as a full-time assistant coach in 2007. He won two more national titles as a member of the coaching staff in 2008 and 2009.
In 2010, Smith was named the head coach of the program and the program continued its success. In its final season at the NAIA level, the Lions finished second at nationals, nine wrestlers earned All-American honors, and one captured an individual title.
During the 2011-12 season, Smith helped transition the program from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II level. This past season, Smith coached one of the top wrestlers in program history in Terrell Wilbourn. Wilbourn finished the year with a perfect 25-0 record, and he won Lindenwood's first individual NCAA national championship in the sport of wrestling.
"I would like to thank the administration and staff at Lindenwood for allowing me the opportunity to do what I love and the resources to be successful," said Smith. "The memories I have gained as an athlete and coach at Lindenwood are something I will cherish and thank everyone involved in making those possible."
"We are sad to see Chad leaving the Lindenwood athletics family," said athletics director John Creer. "Chad has been a valuable part of the wrestling program as a student-athlete and a coach, and has been a part in some of the biggest victories in the school's athletics history. He is leaving the program in very good shape, and we expect his successor to continue that winning tradition."
Located in St. Charles, Missouri just west of St. Louis, Lindenwood University is a four-year, private university. Founded in 1827, Lindenwood now has a total enrollment of approximately 12,000 students. The Lions wrestling program now competes in NCAA Division II.
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