Loran Smith’s sports column: Coach Caryl
Published 12:52 pm Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Caryl Smith-Gilbert is the director of men’s and women’s track teams
at the University of Georgia; if you yawn and move on about your day, be
aware that track in these parts is likely to be sensational on her watch—just
give her competitive facilities and you’ll see.
The more you learn about her, the less you will yawn. It is
reasonable to forecast that a volley of hosannas will come to pass in the
future. The ingredients are there, and there is no holding her back. Before
she cleaned out her desk in Los Angeles’ University Park neighborhood,
the home of the University of Southern California, there was a commitment
from UGA to build an Olympic sized track facility, including an indoor arena.
It will be the best such facility east of the Mississippi.
One of her reasons for coming to the opposite side of the country was
the influence and commitment of Georgia Athletic Director, Josh Brooks.
He is an Olympic sports advocate, but you could say he has the same
goals and aspirations for all UGA teams. Track and field, however, was
more in need of a facility upgrade.
Already, she has brought some of the nation’s top recruits to Athens
and has enjoyed such finishes as 2 nd at the ‘23 men’s NCAA indoor
championships and a third place by the women at the ‘24 NCAA indoor
championships.
The forthcoming track facilities will be of such magnitude that UGA
will be able to host international competition in due course. High school
and grade school kids can come to this facility for training and expert
instruction.
Her eyes gleam with passionate excitement when she connects you
with an assistant coach at a rival SEC school who shares this poignant
data: There are more kids keen on track along the I-85 corridor from
Virgina, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida than any other
geographical area in the country and that includes California, her last
address. More kids, she says, “do track” in this corridor than “anywhere
else” which is why the Southeastern Conference is about to dominate track
like never before, making the best better.
A factor of elevated significance is that track coaches in Georgia and
sister states are becoming elite coaches. Sprinters and runners, jumpers
and throwers are the beneficiaries of preeminent instruction and advanced
training. The Smith-Gilbert effect will enhance it even more.
This is a coach who is all about the classroom, too. She has three
degrees: Film and TV production at UCLA; Masters in sports management
and doctorate in sports psychology at Tennessee. The graduation rate with
her girls and boys is 100 percent.
Here is how she lets her charges know what the importance of
classroom attendance and homework are. Cut class and she will sit you
down the next meet.
Say you are a superstar from Orlando and you come with a faux pas
that brings about an academic shortcoming, she will leave you home when
the Florida Relays take place.
She will lead a contingent of 17 current and former Bulldog track stars
to Paris for the Olympics in July and August where she will connect with the
elite hierarchy in track and field circles with whom she will not be a
stranger. And, not coincidentally, she will get in some shopping at Louis
Vuitton, 101 des Champs-Elysees. After all, she, the well-rounded sports
person, has occasions to be best dressed.
An accomplished coach whose attention to detail makes her not miss
anything that might be most valuable for success, she enjoys her life in
Nike warm-up gear, but transitioning into Louis Vuitton attire for the right
occasion befits her taste and style.
Born in Denver, she took to track competition early on, turning heads
when outrunning the boys was as easy as fielding an A in the classroom. “I
didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to beat the boys,” she smiles. Now she
wants to take it to signature status—she wants to be the first female head
coach to win a men’s national championship.
She had parents who wanted the best for her, but challenge was ever
present, discipline forever underscored. She became so addicted to track
competition that she quit saxophone lessons and resigned from the Girl
Scouts which did not please her dad who boycotted her meets with the
proviso that he would come watch her run only if she made it into the finals.
Winning, when she got to the finals, was especial in that it wasn’t just
a victory, she won with a handicap—she broke the tape wearing tennis
shoes. Dad couldn’t wait to buy her spikes the next day.
UCLA claimed her signature for collegiate competition, and while it
was not the best of times, she enjoyed the college experience and returned
home with a degree. She paid a visit to her high school coach, Tony Wells,
to whom she owes so much. “He took me from ‘just being fast’ to being
No. 1 in the U. S. in high school. He taught me the work ethic, he taught me
that it takes more than talent, teaching me how to do the small stuff. Most
of all he taught me to never quit.”
When she left Westwood and returned home at 23 years of age,
there was Coach Wells, always accentuating the positive, making another
crucial influence on her career. He told her about a high school track
coaching opportunity, but she was not interested. At least initially.
She was as green as the infield grass of the track where she
coached, without savvy and seasoning. It was tantamount to being in a
raging river without a lifejacket. Immediately, she found she enjoyed the
challenge of coaching, however, along with the rewards of seeing kids
improve and become winners and champions with compassion to get a
college degree, serve their communities, become good citizens, and do
some good for the world. You expect that from a Renaissance woman.
At USC she won the NCAA women’s titles in 2018 and 2021. Her
credentials are stacked as high as cordwood in a Swiss forest. “I’ve been
fortunate to have experienced a great career but there’s more I want to get
done. I want to win national titles at Georgia so I can say I have done that
at more than one school. I want to win the women’s hundred, which I
haven’t done yet—that is the event I ran.”
Her husband Greg Gilbert played football at Alabama—and with the
Raiders and the Bears in the NFL. “My middle son Spencer played football
at USC and my youngest son, Osiris, is playing football for Peachtree
Ridge and has about 15 offers in football,” she smiles.
She is an overt fan of football coach Kirby Smart. “Our family is really
into football. We love the ‘Dogs.’ I look at Kirby’s roster and see all those
starters from the state of Georgia. This state has such a rich talent base. I
tell our prospects, ‘You gotta come see how amazing this place is and be
part of a championship culture. Our goal is to win championships. You will
be amazed at what Georgia really is. And don’t forget, it is one of the best
universities in the country. You can take your degree from here and go and
do whatever you want.”
This confirms that she is not succumbing to expediency with track
athletes—use up their eligibility and bid them adieu. She wants to meet up
with them twenty years from now and see them successful in business with
their own kids benefitting from the teachings, motivation and discipline they experienced by having come Coach Caryl’s way.