Drury University Athletics

In November of 2023, Jarrod Smith was named the Head Pickleball Coach at Drury University.  This was the first pickleball program to be an officially recognized sport at a university and the first to offer the combination of a full-time coaching staff, operational budgets, and scholarship opportunities.  The Panther Pad was built on campus by the generous gift of Austin O'Reilly and the O'Reilly family to house the team and boasted 6 pickleball courts, a tennis court, and a basketball court.

At the time of his designation as the head coach at Drury, Smith had been playing pickleball for almost a decade, playing professionally for many of those years.  The culmination of his play was a Men’s Doubles National Title and a Mixed Doubles National Title, both in 2021.  He also spent many of those years traveling and instructing pickleball in many areas of the country. 

Smith has been the head coach of the Drury women's tennis program for 18 years and has served as the head coach of the men's program 13 seasons. 

He ranks among the top five active coaches in NCAA-II in winning percentage in women's NCAA-II tennis and is among the top 10 in men's tennis at the D-II level. Smith has a career record (on the court) of 330-81 (.803) leading the Drury women's team (one win in 2022 was vacated by the NCAA making official record 329-81), and is 193-57 (.772) guiding the men's program. He owns a combined mark on the court of 523-138 (.791) (offically, 522-138).
Smith has led the women's team to eight Great Lakes Valley Conference titles, including five straight from 2007-2011, a league record of 102-5 and 16 national tournament appearances. His women's teams have reached the national quarterfinals twice (2016 and 2006). 

Smith's men's teams have won three GLVC Championships, a 55-5 record in the league play, including an undefeated run in the GLVC from 2012-2021. He has led the program to nine NCAA-II tournament appearances and back-to-back trips to the national quarterfinals in 2017 and 2018.   
Smith transitioned into one of the youngest NCAA head coaches in the country when he led the Panthers women's team to a 23-5 record and the school's first NCAA-II quarterfinals appearance in 2006. He followed that season by posting a 19-6 mark and a trip to the NCAA-II Sweet 16 in '07.

Smith is a eight-time winner of the GLVC's Coach of the Year and has been named a ITA Regional Coach of the Year five times. Smith has coached seven recipients of the conference's Player of the Year award - Maximilian Hepp in 2016, Andy Blair in 2012 and 2013, Nastasia Jedrychowski in 2023, Chandra Capozzi in 2009, Laure Piquemal in 2008, Mouna Sabri in 2007 and Alejandra Miranda-Sanchez in 2006.  

A Lee's Summit native, Smith was a standout player at Northwest Missouri State lettering all four seasons and earning six Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Associations championships (three in singles, three in doubles). He was a first-team All-MIAA selection each season from 2000-03.