NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer

Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

On September 14, 1998, Janine
Smith gave birth to her second child,
Natalie. Three days later, she was back
on the bench coaching, with Natalie at
her side.
Right off the bat, the pair’s
relationship and the game of volleyball
were intertwined.
It had to be. At the time, Janine was
a Division I coach at the University of
Texas at Arlington and taking a season
off wasn’t an option.
Her husband, Warren, did what
he could. He was a stay-at-home
father and he took care of their eldest
daughter, Brooke, who was just 15
months older than Natalie. But as a
newborn, Natalie needed to be with
her mother.
So she was.
“Natalie traveled with me,” Janine
said. “She was with me 24/7 for a good
three months.”
And with a newborn attached to
her hip, Janine coached the Mavericks
to a respectable 24-7 record, going 19-1
in the Southland conference.
After three months filled to the
brim with volleyball, time away
from the other half of the family and
pandering to the needs of a newborn
baby, Janine turned over some of the
parental supervision to Warren that
January.
For the first time since she was
born, Janine and Natalie weren’t
together.
***
Janine was born and raised in
Dubuque, Iowa – a volleyball town. To
the north was a big volleyball school,
Dubuque Wahlert, the place where
she would first truly get to prove
herself.
During her time at Wahlert, she
helped bring home two championship
banners and made enough of an
impact to be inducted into the Iowa
Athletic Hall of Fame for her success
at the high school level.
But her athletic achievements didn’t
stop with volleyball. In track and field,
Janine found a way to, quite literally,

rise above the competition — she was a
high jumper. In her final three years at
Wahlert, Janine became a three-time
state champion at the event.
Her final high jump win came in
1988, the same year she started her
volleyball career at the University of
Texas, Austin.
And that year, she couldn’t help but
just keep winning.
The Longhorns were senior heavy,
and no matter how good Janine
was, she wasn’t going to start as a
freshman. But Janine didn’t let that
hold her back.
“I didn’t know what kind of impact
I was going to make,” Janine said.
“But … I was going to make an impact
no matter what. And whatever it was
going to take, I was going to find my
way on the court.”
She started the year as a defensive
specialist. There was no libero
position in volleyball at that time,
so the defensive specialist fulfilled
that role. She remained there until
one of the seniors suffered an injury,
sidelining them for most of the season.
Again, Janine had a chance to prove
herself.
Stepping into her new role nicely,
she became a six-rotation outside
hitter for the majority of the season,
racking up experience and honing her
game the entire way.
But towards the end, the senior she
took the place of recovered, retaking
her position and relegating Janine to
her back-row duties. That didn’t stop
her from making an impact. Instead,
she earned the moniker ‘Super Sub,’
for her prowess as a rotational player.
In the NCAA Tournament, Texas
faced an undefeated UCLA in the
semifinals. The Longhorns didn’t back
down.
“I had a pretty good Final Four,”
Janine said. “That’s why they say
that they call me the ‘Super Sub,’
because when I came in, I made a lot
of defensive plays to help keep us in it.”
UCLA fell in straight sets, albeit
close ones, and Texas moved on to face
the defending champions, Hawaii.
Janine kept her play up, subbing in for
sophomore Quandalyn Harrell in the

back row and sometimes staying in
for a full six rotations when the coach
needed her to.
After three sets, the Longhorns
were national champions, Janine the
‘Super Sub’ an integral part of the win.
“I was just kind of in the zone,”
Janine said. “I was pretty focused
and wanted it for the seniors who had
worked very hard and who had been
mentors to me as a freshman.”
Over
the
next
three
years,
Texas never made it back to the
championship, only going as far as the
regional finals, but Janine cemented
herself as a star.
She is seventh in Texas history in
both career kills and service aces, as
well as second in career digs, leading
the team in digs in 1989, ‘90 and ‘91.
In her senior year, Janine was
finally able to compete in the other
sport she excelled at in high school —
high jump.
Due to volleyball, she wasn’t
allowed to high jump for her first four
years at Texas. But her eligibility had
ended, so she was free to join track
and field, something the track coaches
wanted her to do much earlier in her
college career.
Another member of the Texas
track and field team was her future
husband, Warren Smith, a pole vaulter
for the Longhorns.
Soon after graduation, the two
were married. A short time after they
tied the knot, Janine received a call.
At the opposite end of the line was
Colorado head coach Brad Saindon.
The Colorado volleyball team was
new, having just started in 1986, and
had yet to see much success. Saindon
wanted Janine to be one of his
assistant coaches, barely a year after
she finished playing at Texas.
“He said he wanted me because
he says that I single handedly helped
our team beat them,” Janine said. “He
wanted me to be on their team as a
coach to help his kids.”
Janine and Warren knew it was a
leap, but they wanted to take it.
That year, Colorado won their first
Big 8 championship ever, beating out
perennial powerhouse Nebraska.

After her first year in Colorado, the
UT-Arlington head coach position
opened up. Janine decided to throw
her hat in the ring for the sake of
experience. In the future, she’d need
to know how to interview and go
through the process of applying for
coaching positions, so it was a great
opportunity to start building that
foundation. In the interview, she was
offered the job on the spot. After just
one year as a limited earnings assistant
coach, she became the head coach of a
Division I volleyball program.
“It was a fast learning curve,”
Janine said. “They had a couple fifth
year seniors on their team so you can
only imagine, we were like a year apart
in age. … And so I had to try to build a
program with kids that were basically
the same age as I was. So it was, let me
say, it was difficult.”
But,
Janine
managed.
She
started getting her own recruits in
the building, and in four years, the
program was turned around. The
Mavericks were vying for conference
championships and making NCAA
tournaments, all the good signs of a
healthy program.
Janine had succeeded yet again;
this time, not as a player, but as a coach.
***
When Natalie, now a senior libero
at Michigan, and her sister, Brooke,
were little, their mom was as involved
with volleyball as ever.
“I would grow up in the gym with
her and a ball cart,” Natalie said. “So
I feel like our relationship started
around that, and our whole lives are
kind of around volleyball.”
That sentiment wore on Janine. In
2004, it was time for a change.
Janine announced that she would
be resigning as the head coach of
the University of Texas at Arlington
volleyball program after two regular
season titles and two tournament titles
in 10 years, solidifying the Mavericks
as a perennial contender in the
Southland Conference. Instead, she
would be taking a job at Silver Creek
Elementary School in Azle, Texas.
“I had an opportunity to teach at
my children’s school,” Janine said in
2004. “It’s in the best interest of our
family. The goal of our family is to be
involved in our children’s lives.”
In this new situation, Janine and
Warren were able to do so.
As the girls grew up, volleyball
never went away, but it wasn’t their
mother’s game anymore, it was theirs,
with Janine coaching them.
“Whenever we first got into really
playing volleyball, my mom coached
us both,” Natalie said. “Then my first
club year, she coached us.”
Janine, as well as Warren, coached
the girls, but the age difference
between Brooke and Natalie led to

years with the two on separate teams,
and left Janine only able to coach one
of them.
Natalie’s junior year of high school
was one of her years, her parents
coaching her club team.
“That was a ton of fun,” Natalie
said. “And probably my favorite year
of my high school. … Because I think
we got closer as a family through that.”
It was also a big recruiting year
for Natalie, and there’s a thin line to
pushing your own kid as a recruit. So,
Janine and Warren waited for coaches
to approach them about Natalie. That’s
when they would have to disclose that
Natalie was their daughter.
“Most coaches will tell you, ‘Oh I
like her even more now,’” Janine said.
“Because most Division I coaches,
highly
competitive
coaches,
like
to have coach’s kids on their team
because those kids understand the
work that you need to do, and they
understand everything that goes into
the game of volleyball.”
Michigan coaches Mark and Leisa
Rosen were just two of many that
approached Janine about Natalie.
They just happened to be the two that
Natalie decided to play for.
“When Natalie took a visit up to
Michigan, she just knew,” Janine said.
“She had gone to many visits prior to
that, and we went up to Michigan and
we just knew that was the place for
her.”
For Janine, that was a great fit
for her daughter. Not only was she
playing for Mark, a coach she knew
and respected, but was playing for
someone Janine met all the way back
in high school — Leisa.
The two played on the Junior
National team together before starting
their collegiate and coaching careers
in volleyball.
“Leisa is a lot like myself,” Janine
said. “I think that we bonded pretty
well and I think that’s why we get
along so well.”
But what made Janine feel best
about her daughter’s college decision
wasn’t about what kind of coaches the
Rosens were or that she had played
with one of them in high school, it was
the kind of people they were.
“They’re unbelievable people who
take care of their student athletes and
really care,” Janine said.
And really, that’s what volleyball is
for Janine — a way to express herself
and care for others.
“She cares so much about people,”
Natalie said. “So I think I took that
a lot from her. Just the way she
cares about kids and anyone she
communicates with. It’s just very
inspiring to see, and she’s like my
biggest role model.
“I think that’s the thing I love
about her the most.”

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