Drury University Athletics

Jarrod Smith enjoyed a lengthy run as one of the top collegiate tennis coaches in the region and NCAA Division II ranks, serving as Drury’s women’s tennis program for 18 seasons, as well as the Panthers’ head men’s coach for 13 years. An eight-time winner of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year award and ITA Regional Coach of the Year five times, Smith’s men’s teams won three GLVC titles with a 55-5 record in league play, and the Drury women won eight league championships with 16 national tournament appearances during his tenure.
 
Smith ranks among the top five coaches in NCAA-II women’s winning percentage (.795, as he posted a 341-88 mark) and the top 10 in men’s winning percentage (.772, with a record of 209-62). Smith’s men’s teams were undefeated in the GLVC from 2012-21, winning 83 consecutive matches in league play. He led the men’s program to 10 NCAA tournament appearances and back-to-back trips to the national quarterfinals in 2017 and 2018. His men’s teams posted 23 wins in 2014 and 2015 and 21 victories in 2017 and 2018. Smith’s top campaigns on the women's ledger included four 20-win seasons in five years from 2006-10, with top years of 23 wins, and another run of four straight years with 20 or more wins from 2014-17. He guided the women’s program to 15 NCAA tournaments and reached the national quarterfinals in 2006 and 2016.
 
Smith mentored three DU men's singles and one doubles team to All-America honors, developed 41 All-GLVC players and had five standouts named ITA Midwest Senior Player of the Year. He also coached 57 women who earned all-conference honors, had four named GLVC Player of the Year honorees and four more selected as GLVC Freshman of the Year. Three DU women were honored as ITA Region Senior Player of the Year, with one player and one doubles team named All-America.

Following the conclusion of his tennis coaching career, Smith was named Drury's head coach for pickleball in 2023, as the Panthers became the first officially recognized program in the nation with a full-time coaching staff, operational budget, and scholarship opportunities. Smith played pickleball for a decade, including professionally for a number of years, culminating in men’s doubles and mixed doubles national titles in 2021.
 
A native of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Smith was a tennis standout at Northwest Missouri State as a four-year letterman with six Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association singles and doubles titles to his credit. He was selected for All-MIAA First Team honors four times during his time as a Bearcat.