Smith eager to take the reins with CSUB
It wasn’t long ago that some devastating news had Luke Smith pondering a career change.
Smith seemed to be in a good place at the end of the 2018 wrestling season. Having just completed his seventh year as an assistant at Eastern Michigan University, he held a prominent role on an Eagle team that had put together arguably the best season in program history.
Long a doormat in the Mid-American Conference, the Eagles nabbed a program-best third-place finish at that year’s MAC Tournament. They also had their first conference champion since 2009, their first All-American since 1999, and were primed to be even better with five national tournament qualifiers set to return the following season.
But all that momentum was halted just weeks after the season wrapped, when Eastern Michigan cut four of its athletic programs, including wrestling. Having helped bring respectability to the long-struggling program, Smith was crushed by the news and admits he had serious thoughts of leaving the profession.
“It almost broke me,” he said of the university’s decision. “If I can put in all that work for seven years and someone can just take it away with one decision, I (didn’t) know if I wanted to do this anymore.”
Fortunately, an offer from Cal State Bakersfield head coach Manny Rivera got him back on track mentally.
Though they had competed for rival teams in college — Rivera was a 141-pound wrestler at Minnesota, Smith a 125-pounder at Central Michigan — the two became friends in the mid-2000s, even working out together during the offseason.
As they got into coaching, they stayed in touch. And when his friend needed a job, Rivera happily brought Smith into the fold at CSUB, hiring him as an assistant prior to the 2018-19 season.
Now, just two years after bringing him to Bakersfield, Rivera is handing the reins of the program over to Smith, at least temporarily.
The university announced on Sept. 24 that Rivera would be stepping down as the Roadrunners’ coach for personal reasons, and that Smith would be filling in as interim coach.
“I definitely did not expect it,” Smith said of the news. “I was super bummed out initially because I was losing my closest friend in the area. But I’m very grateful for the opportunity. Obviously Bakersfield has a great history of success (and) I’m looking to doing everything I can to keep moving this program forward.”
A big reason Smith was seen as a top candidate to fill the position is his strong relationship with current CSUB wrestlers.
Having been the program’s lead recruiter since arriving in Bakers
field, Smith has been responsible for bringing in a good amount of the program’s talent in recent years and school officials believe his established connection with student-athletes will help make the transition a smooth one.
“He’s been great with his experience, but I think more of what made this decision easy is what Luke has done since he’s been here,” CSUB Athletic Director Kenneth “Ziggy” Siegfried said. “I’m fully confident in Luke in this role and I don’t think our wrestling program will skip a beat.”
Just two-and-a-half years after he contemplated leaving the profession, Smith says he’s ready to jump into his first head coaching job with both feet. Unfortunately,
that isn’t an option at the present time.
COVID-19 restrictions are preventing the team from working out, and there’s still no word on when the Roadrunners will be able to return to action. And while a coaching change has brought even more uncertainty to their lives, Smith says he’s been encouraged with how his wrestlers have handled the news.
“( They) came here to be All-Americans and national champions and at the end of the day, those goals don’t change,” he said. “I told them they’ve just got to focus on the things within (their) control.”
That’s advice Smith is having to take himself. Despite giving his interim coach a vote of confi
dence, Siegfried says the athletic department still intends to conduct a national search to fill the position full time in the coming weeks.
Smith hopes to be the last person standing when that search is complete, and says he’s ready to prove he’s the best candidate for the job.
“Until it’s finalized, one way or another, there’s going to be a little bit of pressure,” he said. “But at the same time, I have to take my advice I gave the team. I don’t have complete control. All I can do is focus on the things I have control over right now, and that’s trying to move this program forward and help these guys in any way I can to accomplish their goals.”