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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