Sharyland Pioneer baseball coach placed on administrative leave

A Sharyland Pioneer baseball home game on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Mission. (Delcia Lopez | [email protected])

MISSION — Sharyland Pioneer Head Baseball Coach Casey Smith was put on administrative leave, the district confirmed Wednesday, although it’s not clear what led to that action.

Smith, who led his team to a state playoff bid in 2021, has been with Pioneer for five years and previously coached at Mission Veterans Memorial.

It’s not clear when Smith was placed on leave, although he wasn’t coaching his team at their game Tuesday against Nikki Rowe.

The district said privacy considerations prevent it from releasing more details on the matter.

“Given that your inquiry relates to a school district employee, the Sharyland ISD has limited information that it can disclose,” a statement read.

Smith also declined to comment on the situation, although he did issue a brief statement to The Monitor via his attorney.

“I love and miss my guys,” he said.

What’s abundantly clear is that Pioneer has, at least temporarily, lost the leadership of one of the Rio Grande Valley’s premier coaches in the midst of its 2022 season.

During his eight years at Mission Veterans, Smith coached his team to seven playoff berths and five district championships; at Pioneer, Smith’s team has secured three straight playoff appearances and currently leads its district with a 7-0 record.

What’s also clear, from talking to former players and parents of former players, is that Smith has a sometimes rigorous coaching style that generated both fans and detractors.

Edward Peña, who played for Smith at Veterans from 2012 to 2015, said Smith could be tough.

“I think that if you don’t have thick skin, then you better get it pretty quick,” he said. “But I can’t say enough good things about coach Smith; he was really good at Veterans and he knows how to coach. I think it’s evident with how much he wins.”

Peña, who went on to play college baseball, said that coaching style didn’t resonate with everyone on the team, but he thinks it helped players reach their full potential.

“Looking back now, I appreciate his toughness, and I think he was a good coach,” he said. “But maybe at the time, if you’re in high school and you’re not used to being talked at a certain way — he expects a lot. He cares a lot and he expects for you to care a lot.”

A father of a former Pioneer player, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity out of concern of backlash from the community, largely agreed.

Smith could be a “hard-ass,” that parent said, but he was never too hard — plus, he was a winning coach.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I mean, he’s taken this team to state. He’s always in the top 10, top 25, and he works with the kids. He works hard.”

That parent said the administrative leave news came as a surprise. He said he appreciated Smith’s toughness: he felt the players were always prepared and that the leadership style wasn’t out of line compared to ones used by other coaches in the region.

“You see a lot of that,” he said. “Football coaches do that, basketball coaches do that here. You know, they’ll get into the kid’s face and yell at them and get on them.”

Not everyone feels that coaching style is warranted.

A former Pioneer athlete who played under Smith, who also spoke under the condition of anonymity out of concern of retaliation, said Smith’s attitude could be mercurial and that his criticism could be extreme.

“It was more of how he’d communicate,” the former player said. “He’d just snap and yell. It’d be over dumb things sometimes.”

That former player said Smith was certainly a winning coach, but he wasn’t necessarily opposed to a different person leading the Diamondbacks.

“I feel like it’s taken some pressure off their backs,” he said. “I’m happy if it makes them happy. They had lots of expectations ever since they made it to state.”