Smalley put in time, effort to lead Trojans by example
The importance of defense can be summed up in the old adage by legendary coach Bear Bryant, in that “defense wins championships.” Better yet is when a player on a team has the skillset and focus to dominate both sides of the ball, as is the case of Hot Springs senior defensive back Pierce Smalley.
Racking up 56 tackles, eight pass breakups and five tackles for loss along with 750-plus total yards and eight touchdowns, Smalley is the 2021 All-garland County Defensive Player of the Year.
The 5-11, 185-pound athlete helped lead the Trojans (5-6, 3-3 5A-south) to the Class 5A state playoffs during his senior campaign, while also garnering All-state, All-conference and 5A-south Outstanding Defensive Back accolades.
Although the Trojans were not able to go as far into the postseason as they would have liked, Smalley counts it an honor to be a part of the team and have the success he did. Following the Trojans’ 33-14 loss to Nettleton to finish out the season, he noted it was hard coming off the field — in more ways than one.
“I was playing on a messed up knee,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t really 100%, but I tried to leave it all out there. They ended up getting the best of us, but I gave it all I had.”
Out of all the challenges Smalley faced throughout his high school football playing career, dealing with the “injury bug” this season proved the toughest. Possessing a keen self-awarness and quiet confidence, Smalley knew quite well the potential he had inside of him, as did Trojans head football coach Darrell Burnett.
“‘Quiet Storm,’ as we called him,” Burnett said. “You know, he’s real, real quiet, but he comes on the field in a hard fashion.”
Burnett said when Smalley was younger, he was “just a young, energized kid that didn’t say too much.”
“We challenged him,” he said. “And he was one of those kids that, you know — a lot of kids don’t want you to tell them what they’re not good at, or what they need to improve in. Most kids want you to pat ‘em on the back and tell them how good they are at this and that. But he knew his game plan as a leader. He knew his game plan as an individual — things he had to improve on to get to the next level. And that’s the reason he’s playing here. That’s the reason why he’s got these scholarships coming his way. He’s worked on it. So it’s just a true test, man, when you’re at Hot Springs. If you want something, you gotta put time in. You’ve got to work hard at it. And to get a group of guys to follow you is even better.”
That leadership quality Smalley honed throughout the years impacted his team greatly, and no year was it as evident as this season.
“This year I became more vocal, I’d say,” he said. “In the past years, you know, I kinda really just stayed to myself and let everyone else take care of that, but this year I really became more vocal to take care of the team. … I hate losing, and I see it from a mind game (aspect) where, I mean, if I know more than (the opposing team) — then I’ll use it to an advantage.”
When asked how vital solid defensive play is to a team, Smalley echoed Bryant’s famous quote.
“I mean, if you hold them under a certain amount of points, all you really need is a decent offense to put points on the board,” he said.
This was, perhaps, never as evident as during the 1980s through the 1990s when teams like the 1985 Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl with hard-nosed defense.
While modern rule changes designed to protect athletes have made play less physical today, when nothing else seems to be going a team’s way, a consistent, aware and hard-knocking defensive style of play will go a long way towards a favorable outcome. It is part of the nature of the game.
Asked what goes into his overall success on the field, Smalley cites a rather well-rounded approach, hinting at something far more than the game itself.
In addition to the work he puts in on the field and in the weight room, it is just as important for him to work just as hard in the classroom. This, he said, helps him stay in the right mindset and keep his dedication in check.
Burnett said his dedication does not go unnoticed, as the other players see the work he puts in and his constant desire to better himself. That energy trickles over to his teammates and down to younger players coming up behind him.
“The guys that surround the program, you know, we come in, we break it down in the summertime based on months,” said Burnett of the team’s workout schedule. “As soon as we get out of school, it’s three days a week, and then we’ll go four days a week the following month, and then August, we’re five. He’s pretty much five every week, you know, putting in extra work, getting extra guys to come up and do the same thing. He wanted to be great. He wanted to be good. He works his butt off in the classroom, on the field, and everything that’s coming his way is well-deserved.”
This is exactly what a coach wants, Burnett noted — kids putting in the time and effort to show what they are truly capable of.
“But the biggest thing we’re proud of him for, and some of the rest of them, is they’ve got grades,” he said. “They’ve got the ACT scores, and then they’ve got options. He stands in front of you right now as a football player, but he’s even a better young man.”
Burnett said if Smalley decided not to play football in college, he can just as easily go on an academic scholarship.
“That’s the thing that stands out, you know. He’s the true form of a student athlete,” Burnett said.
While Smalley, who is also a member of the Trojans’ track, baseball and bowling teams, has yet to decide where nor mention which schools he is talking to, he said that he definitely plans on playing college football next fall.
More than any particular play or a certain win, he said the thing he is going to miss the most is being in the locker room with his teammates following a win, with everyone “in a good mood, dancing, having fun.”
“You want everyone in a positive mood because those mood swings … Whenever everyone’s talking down, thinking down, thinking negative, then they’re not where they’re supposed to be,” he said. “They’re not going to be thinking the right way. But teamwork — we build a brotherhood with it, the discipline from it, and that’s something I don’t think you can get from any other sport really.”