When Michael Smith (COL ’02) returned to his alma mater in September 2012 to serve as head coach of the women’s cross-country team, the Hoyas were less than one year removed from winning their first national championship. Smith was at the helm of a team that had recently lost both five-year Head Coach Chris Miltenberg, the 2012 National Coach of the Year and athlete Emily Infeld, who led the Hoyas at the NCAA championships, in a short span of time.

Even with a talented squad, Smith had a lot of work ahead of him in order to live up to recent successes.

“I think [Smith] came in at a really difficult spot because the women had won the NCAA title the year before and they had lost Emily Infeld, who probably is the best female athlete ever at Georgetown,” Men’s Distance Coach Brandon Bonsey said. “Coach Miltenberg, who’s now at Stanford, had a tremendous amount of success here, and obviously Emily did as well. Then, all of sudden, that’s gone, and those girls had run on a team that had totally bought into coach Miltenberg and his philosophies.”

Despite the twin departures, the Hoyas and Smith produced a solid season and are now in tremendous form in 2014. The No. 2 Blue and Gray have won three of their six meets this season, including a dominant overall performance and victory at the Big East championships — the team’s most significant competition of the season thus far. This time around, the Hoyas attained their significant achievements under the leadership of Smith. Smith was named the Big East Women’s Cross-Country Coach of the Year on Friday.

“Coach Smith has been an incredible asset to this team,” said junior Samantha Nadel, who was among the freshman runners that Smith coached in his first year at Georgetown. “Without him, I don’t think we would be where we currently are.”

Smith is also welcomed and appreciated by a women’s team that has several runners who were recruited by, were trained under and ran for Miltenberg. Despite committing to compete under a different system, the athletes have come to appreciate their new coach.

“Coach Mike is really awesome — we all love him,” senior Annamarie Maag said. “I think that the coolest thing about him is that he always focuses on the whole team aspect and doing things together and doing [them] our way. He really prioritizes the team culture and makes sure that’s in a positive place, and I think those are things that aren’t necessarily found in every coach and I think that’s something we all think is really special about him.”

Runners on the team noted his competitive spirit, which leads him to drive each runner to challenge herself and her fellow teammates. His temperament helps improve results when the team competes against other programs.

“I think he expects a lot of us and he holds us to a high standard, which helps each of us hold each other to a higher standard,” Maag said. “I think he knows what it takes to be successful and he expects that of us and he’s very clear about it.”

While Smith trains his team to be runners on the field and on the track, he also takes care to establish relationships with all of the runners and stresses the aspect of being a team.

“I think one of the most important things about him as a coach is that he cares about us as people first and runners second, [which is] something that isn’t always present at other programs around the country,” senior distance runner Katrina Coogan said. “His genuine care for every single person on the team is so apparent every day at practice as well. Our team is a family and he is an integral part to that.”

In spite of Smith’s immense success at the helm of the program, he was reluctant to comment on being named the Big East Women’s Cross-Country Coach of the Year. Smith largely attributed accolade to the runners that he coaches.

“[The accolade] is more a statement about the stuff that our athletes do week in and week out,” Smith said. “It’s an honor to coach this group and it’s nice to be recognized for that.”