Moments after his Neshannock High boys basketball team lost to Shady Side Academy two weeks ago, coach Jim Smiley had a few things to do.

“Hold, on Jon,” he said to me. “I’ve got to go face my critics.”

He walked past several parents of Lancers players huddled tightly around athletic director Gary Weimer. Few spoke to Smiley. Some sneered as he walked by. One man shook his hand and congratulated him on a good season.

Love him or hate him, Smiley tells it like he sees it.

“They must have hired the dumbest guy to be basketball coach,” Smiley later said. “Because everybody is a basketball coach here — they’re all coaches (pointing to the group of parents).”

“I’m an idiot if I don’t put their kid in, even if he can’t make a layup.”

Last week, Smiley’s name came up at a Neshannock Township School Board meeting for allegedly blaming football players who also played basketball for losing against Mohawk on Dec. 8. He also is alleged to have used profane language toward the team at various times throughout the season in the midst of harassing players.

Anonymous posts on the www.ncnewsonline.com forum also allege Smiley spit at his players during a game at Riverside this year, and that he generally treats his players like trash.

In a story written by sports editor Kayleen Cubbal last week, Smiley refuted all the allegations, saying it is a matter of parents wanting to get back at him for not playing their children.

I have a unique take on this because I covered the Dec. 8 game at Mohawk and the Jan. 11 game at Riverside this season.

During the game at Mohawk, trailing by 18 points at halftime, Neshannock was in the locker room for at least eight of the 10 minutes allotted for halftime. Smiley is alleged to have berated senior players Emmanuel Mitsos and Matt Henderson — neither of whom had played in the game.

In an E-mail I received from Henderson on Dec. 12, he alleged that Smiley said that “it’s because of people like you” — referring to Mitsos and Henderson, who skipped summer basketball workouts for football practice — “that we are losing.”

Henderson and Mitsos, along with reserve guard Nick Kulick, quit the team after that game.

As the team emerged from the locker room, I observed a player look into the stands and say, “Coach is an (end of the digestive system).”

After the game, Smiley was calm and polite in the interview.

Smiley refused to speak to reporters afterr the Riverside on Jan. 11, with his only comment being, “Here’s my comment (pointing to the scoreboard), 64-35. It speaks volumes. Volumes.”

It was one of the rare times Smiley didn’t have something to say.

He is brutally honest with his team’s performances, yet he won’t call a player out by name.

He is said to be a tough coach, but more than one player said his practices are easy.

He can be his own toughest critic, openly questioning his coaching abilities after a 54-51 loss against Shenango on Jan. 4.

“I guess we have to change what we’ve been doing because I’ve been doing this for so long and this year, it’s not working. It’s back to the drawing board.”

His team won seven of its last nine games and qualified for the playoffs.

If anything, Smiley might care too much. And he might be a little too set in his ways.

“I come from the old school,” Smiley said after the Shady Side loss. “The way I was brought up is the way I coach. Some people don’t like it.”

Believe me, I’ve heard every coach in Lawrence County outside of the locker room after a loss. Some yell, some berate, some toss blame around, some even throw chairs.

John Sarandrea was the best (or worst) of all of them. Nobody is even in the same ballpark as he was.

Smiley always struck me as one of the tamest.



WHAT TO DO

Smiley has a habit of sitting away from his team while they watch the junior varsity game.

Far away, all by himself.

Maybe it’s to get a feel for the game that night, maybe it’s a meditation tactic.

Or maybe it’s to get as far away from the players’ parents as possible.

We all like a good coaching controversy (especially sports writers), but there isn’t one here.

If anything, some players and their parents are unable to handle Smiley’s attitude and coaching style.

All you need to know lives in the anonymous world of The News’ chat forum.

A woman simple know as “MysteryGirl,” (who I also received an e-mail from, requesting a private meeting), alleges that Smiley is losing it. She says Smiley “scars his players for life” and that he wrote secret e-mails to the superintendent after the Dec. 8 game to cover his tracks.

Another blogger, “GetWorked,” openly says that he is a former player for Smiley. He is quick to back up any and all allegations that have been made against his former coach.

“MysteryGirl” has even mentioned that an attorney has been hired to look into Smiley’s behavior. She failed to discuss further allegations on the public forum.

My only frame of reference to Jim Smiley, outside of our two-year working relationship, is a cousin and a friend from high school who lives in Georgia.

My cousin played golf for Smiley in the early 2000s. He said he was a nice guy.

My friend, Tom Whitten, played basketball for Neshannock from 1997-99, then transferred to New Castle, where he played football and a month of basketball before quitting the team.

Whitten came back for a basketball game in December, walked up to Smiley, gave him a big hug and said he missed him.

“It broke my heart when Tommy went over the hill (in reference to New Castle),” Smiley said then.

“Coach, I left for football,” Whitten said, in what is now a very ironic statement. “I loved playing here, I wish I would’ve stayed.”

The locker room was happy. The players were happy. The coach and his former player — who transferred to another school to play the sport Smiley is said to loathe — were happy.

Parents outside of the locker room probably weren’t happy.

Probably because Jim Smiley is the coach.

If he’s a jerk, he’s a jerk. The world is full of them.

But, I would think that if he were as abusive and out of control as some label him to be, he would not have survived this long as basketball coach in one place.

I believe most of what is alleged happened. These things just don’t make themselves up, and hey, lawyer fees are too high these days.

It’s just not that big a deal, folks.

It’s not a crime to be an opinionated, hard-nosed basketball coach who wants his players to focus on his sport year-round.

It’s also not a crime to be a hardheaded, ironclad old basketball coach who is stuck in the 1960s and swears a lot.

Bobby Knight made a career out of it. From the sounds of it, so has Jim Smiley.

So, parents and players, take heed to Smiley’s statement after that Dec. 8 game — the one causing such a stir in The News’ chat room.

“I gotta take a hard look at what we’re doing,” Smiley said after that loss. “We are treading the fine line between success and failure.”

Now apply that to yourself.

(Jon Geramita is a sports correspondent for The News.)