University of Connecticut Athletics
The Road To The NCAA Championship: Sean Smith
6/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
June 3, 2010
STORRS, Conn. - For the first time since 2006, the University of Connecticut track and field team will have a decathlete at the NCAA Championship on June 9. This athlete walked onto the UConn track and field squad in 2005, overcame a year-long injury, and has been the captain of the Husky squad in three of his seasons at the university.
This athlete is Sean Smith.
Smith is a fifth year senior at UConn, who in all likelihood shouldn't have even been competing this season for the Huskies. After winning the BIG EAST Decathlon in 2009, Smith decided to come back and use his final year of eligibility.
The road to the NCAA Championship was a bumpy one for Sean Smith. The former walk-on essentially recruited himself to the university after sending film to assistant coach Rich Miller, who oversees the multi-event athletes at UConn. He knew that although he was a strong performer at the high school level, he wouldn't stand out in his individual events at a Division I university, his ultimate goal.
"I looked into multi-events when I was deciding where to go for college," said Smith. "The events that I competed in during high school were all highly technical events and I thought I had a solid base to build off of when I made it to the next level."
Though UConn head coach Greg Roy knew about Smith, he thought the New Jersey native was heading to the University of Delaware. Smith had a few options as to where he could attend college and even received a scholarship from nearby Sacred Heart University, but UConn was where he wanted to go.
"Out of all of the schools that I looked at, UConn had the best multi-event program," continued Smith. "That coupled with their outstanding business school helped make the decision easy for me."
Despite earning points in the 2006 and 2007 BIG EAST heptathlon and the 2006 BIG EAST decathlon, Smith couldn't feel himself getting any better at each event. After the 2006 outdoor season, Smith was diagnosed with a groin pull which he rehabbed throughout the summer and fall hoping the pain in his leg would go away.
It didn't.
After taking seventh place in the 2007 BIG EAST heptathlon, an MRI concluded that the injury Smith incurred was not in fact a groin pull, but a hernia.
"I was trying to learn how to properly compete at each event for the heptathlon and decathlon," said Smith, "But when you have a nagging injury, you aren't properly training. I would go out there and throw the discus just to throw it, not throw it the way I was taught because it hurt too much."
With the new knowledge of his injury, Smith redshirted the outdoor season during his sophomore year.
In his junior season, Smith could feel himself progressing at each event and without the nagging injury saw even more improvement during competitions. He kept moving up the charts in BIG EAST competition, taking sixth in the heptathlon and fifth in the decathlon and improved on his personal record every year.
In his senior season, Smith took on some new responsibilities after being named captain of both the indoor and outdoor squads.
"I was stunned when coach [Roy] named me captain of the indoor team," said Smith. "This year I had to take my role on the team more seriously. I knew now that I was an influence on not just the freshmen multi-eventers but the whole team. The new responsibility helped me to focus and I think was the first step into getting me to where I am today."
Smith podiumed for the first time at a BIG EAST meet in 2009, coming in third place with a personal record score of 5,247. He got to share the podium with teammate Aaron King, who won his second-straight BIG EAST heptathlon and experience the team's second-straight BIG EAST Indoor Championship.
It was the BIG EAST Outdoor Championship that solidified Smith's decision to come back and use his final year of outdoor eligibility.
"Going into the BIG EAST Championship I was hoping that I could win, but I was not expecting it," said Smith. "I felt that I had done everything I could that year in preparation. The weather conditions were not favorable and in a rainy decathlon it is just about who can fight through it. When I realized that I had won I felt like I was floating through the crowd. It was unbelievable."
This season, everything aligned perfectly for the super senior.
According to Smith, the current multi-event core of Aaron King, Kyle Rowbotham, Sam Smith and Ben and Jake Waruch at UConn melds perfectly together. The decathlete group and Coach Miller got into a groove over the course of the season and everyone is on the same page pushing towards the same goals.
"Rich Miller was my first decathlete at UConn," explained Roy. "He is the ultimate decathlon coach because he experienced it firsthand."
Smith concurs. "I have full trust in Coach Miller and listen to anything and everything that he has to say to me. In my opinion, he is the best multi-event coach in the BIG EAST and has to be one of the best in the country."
This drive and determination that the team exudes, has helped Smith to push himself to new levels in the last two seasons. He has improved on his personal record by over 1,000 points while at UConn. In his first three years he only improved about 200 points, but in the last two years his PR has jumped over 800 points.
His ultimate confidence booster came at the Texas Relays earlier this season. Smith wasn't even supposed to be competing at the event, but after the decathlon at Spec Towns in Georgia ended up being a bust, he was on his way to Austin to compete with some of the elite decathletes in the country.
"I competed against six or seven of the 24 decathletes that are currently in the NCAA Championship," said Smith, "and I PRed in my opening decathlon. No one does that. But I improved over 100 points and took sixth place which helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself."
That confidence brought Smith his second-straight BIG EAST Decathlon title as he improved upon his personal record yet again, this time by nearly 300 points recording a total of 7,370 points which was enough for him to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship.
"Sean's accomplishments exemplify what is right and good about college athletics," said Roy. "He came here for his education and effectively integrated athletics into his education while succeeding in both. Sean is the epitome of where hard work and competitiveness can get you."
The injury that hampered Smith's performance for nearly a year and sidelined him for the spring of 2007 ended up his biggest blessing in disguise.
According to Roy, "He's earned his storybook ending."
Players Mentioned
