We continue with our office hours episodes as I sit down with Coach Dave Smith, one of the most accomplished coaches in NCAA cross country history and the architect behind Oklahoma State's dominance. Since taking the helm in Stillwater, Coach Smith has built a powerhouse program leading Oklahoma State to four NCAA men's cross country titles and a Big 12 record of 13 conference championships. He guided the Cowboys to a historic team performance at the 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championship, scoring just 49 points, the third lowest winning total since 2000.

Coach Smith’s accolades don't stop there. He's a four-time National Coach of the Year, a Team USA coach on the world stage, and a leader of a program that has consistently produced NCAA champions, All-Americans, and world-class athletes like German Fernandez, Taylor Roe, Alex Maier, and Sinclaire Johnson.

In today's episode, we dive into his journey from athlete to coach, how he's cultivated a championship driven environment at Oklahoma State, what's next for his program, his athletes, and his take on the future of distance running in the NCAA and beyond.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram

Guest: Dave Smith | @coach_dave_smith on Instagram

Episode Highlights:

The following excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full episode with Dave Smith on the CITIUS MAG Podcast.

Qualities he values in recruits:

Here's what I'm looking for: I want people who lay in bed at night seeing themselves as a gold medalist. That's what I want… I'm a scientist, I'm a PhD pharmacologist, neurobiologist, and I think very logically. I want to see proof, I want to see evidence, I want to repeat it and know that it's repeatable. People like that aren't great athletes. The people that are great are the dreamers, the believers, and the people that can know they can do something without proof. I look for those kinds of kids…

You can't be someone who shies away from sticking your neck out. I tell our guys: ‘We are trying to win.’ I'll say it publicly. I will say it to anybody. Maybe that puts pressure on us. But life is pressure. Athletics is practice for life. You need to figure out how to handle pressure, how to handle stress, how to handle others’ expectations, your own expectations, and manage it.

If you're going to come to Oklahoma State, you have to know that we're trying to win. We're not always going to win – and we're still going to find value in everything we do – but ultimately, we're competitive. We're doing this to be the best we can possibly be. We measure ourselves against other people. That's how we determine how good we are.

I've heard a lot of people say that you can’t value yourself based on other people's abilities, but that's exactly what the sport is. When we line up on the line, we are going to measure ourselves against somebody else. We are racing to win. We all focus on times, PRs, and improvement. We distract ourselves with those things. Ultimately, we run the race to win the race.

Philosophy on recruiting international athletes:

I tell our guys: Our team, we're all one nation. We're the cowboy nation, we all bleed orange. I don't care what side of a line you were born on, I don't care what color your skin is, I don't care what language you speak, I don't care who you love, and I don't care how much money your parents make. I want people that want to be here, want to work hard, want to dream big, see themselves on a podium with a flag – I don't care what flag – draped around your neck. That's who I want. If you're that guy, you fit here. If you're not, you don't.

Mentality around competing:

Everyone says it's supposed to be about the process. To me that's all cute, but it's not true in my mind. I want to win… For next year, I’ve got to go back and think about the process: How do we get to that spot where we have a chance of the outcome we want? At the end of the day, I want the outcome. I wish I could be the zen guy and say, ‘It's all about the process.’ But I'm not…

There is value in the process and knowing what you're doing, why you're doing it, and concentrating on getting a little bit better everyday. Doing what you can this day to make this day the day it's supposed to be, whether it's recovery, if it's to go out and get after it, or if it's a race. Make that day the best it can be for what it’s supposed to be. But again, when it comes down to it, we're doing this to get an outcome that we want. For me, we want to win.

On staying true to his coaching philosophy:

I think every coach has to be honest with themselves. We can't all emulate somebody else we see and think, ‘That sounded really cool what that coach said. I'm going to say that.’ If it's not you, it's not honest… As I matured as a coach, I realized you’ve got to be yourself. You’ve got to be true to what you believe in, because if you do what you believe, your athletes sense it. It gives them confidence and they believe in it as well.

If you're doing something because somebody else does it, you don't have true belief. Your athletes sense that and there's some nervousness and anxiety like, ‘Is this really what I should be doing? Like I said, I am driven by outcomes. I want to win, I want to get better, and I want to break records. I want to do all those big things.

Listen to the full episode here.

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