Holy Family University Athletics

Walt Smith has been an assistant for the Holy Family Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field programs since 2016-17.
 
Men’s track & field has won three conference championships during his tenure, winning the program’s first two East Coast Conference (ECC) Indoor Championships in 2023 and 2024 before going on to win the program’s first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Outdoor Championship in 2024. 
 
Meanwhile, the women have won the program’s first two ECC Indoor Track & Field Championships in 2022 and 2023, while tying a program record with three straight second place finishes at the CACC Outdoor Championships from 2022-24. 

The women have also captured four consecutive CACC Sportsmanship Awards, while an HFU student-athlete has qualified for five consecutive NCAA Track & Field Championships, with Nishorn Pierre (2022 Outdoors, 2023 Indoors, 2024 Indoors) and Kouto Anyika (2024 Indoors) receiving All-America Honors.  
 
Smith has helped the cross country teams to program records as well, with the women placing third at both the 2021 and 2023 CACC Championship and the men earning 118 points at the 2019 CACC Championship. 

Before joining Holy Family, Smith was the assistant coach of Zenith Velocity Track Club from 2012-2014. During his time there, he helped coach Lalonde Gordon to bronze medals in both the 400m and 4x400m relay at the London Olympics, as well as Akheem Gunlett to a Jamaica National Championship in the 400m. 
 
As a competitor, Smith was the AAU National Junior Olympic champion in the 4x100m and also placed second in the 4x400m. 
 
He would compete collegiately at St. Francis Brooklyn College, where he was an IC4A qualifier and earned All-NEC Honors with a third-place finish in the 4x100m in 2007. He was the recipient of the Men’s Track and Field Indoor MVP in 2006 and the Emerging Leadership Award in 2010.
 
Smith received his bachelor’s degree in film and broadcasting in 2010.