CALN The man who brought the storied Coatesville High School Boys basketball team its only PIAA championship has passed away. Jim “Scoogie” Smith, a Coatesville legend, passed away Wednesday at Pocopson Home after a battle with dementia. Smith was 78 years old and is survived by his wife Louise.
Smith won over 300 games in his storied career and in the 2000-01 season brought home the coveted state championship to Coatesville when the Red Raiders defeated Schenely High School at Hersheypark Arena. The star on that Red Raiders team was John Allen, who is the current head coach of the boys basketball program at Coatesville.
“We were life long friends and I cannot even put into words what “Scoogie” meant to me,” Allen said. “Outside of my parents, he was my best friend in life. I don’t think anybody could say a bad word about him. He was such a positive influence on so many peoples lives. He always had a smile and I did not realize this when I was in high school but he always, even when things were tough, would make everyone smile and feel good about things.
When my son was born I told “Scoogie” that he was going to be a basketball player. He used to go to the NCAA Final Four every year with a group of guys that included Eric Anderson and Leon Bell, who were two guys he coached against. He came back one year from the Final Four and he brought my son his first basketball. It really touched me. He was a great guy and i will miss him dearly.”
One of Smith’s rivals at Coatesville and a Coatesvilel native was Eric Anderson. Anderson coached with Smith under then Red Raiders head coach Gerry Quendfeld in 1993-94. Anderson went on to coach at Pottsgrove and West Chester East and for a time, the Vikings held their own with Smith’s Red Raiders squads in the early 2000’s.
“We were always very close to each other,” Anderson said. “We coached together and then when I went to Pottsgrove i told him that someday I will bring back a team and I will try to beat him and he just laughed and said “I know you will.” He was a great guy and a great friend.
“I was with him a couple of days before he passed away and I think after his son Dwyane died last summer he just fell off a cliff. They were best friends and it really hit him hard. They would face time all the time and watch football together. When we competed against each other we never were enemies. We both were fierce competitors but we were always close, right up the the end.
“The one thing I will always remember about “Scoggie” was that he was always fun to be around. He was truly a genuine person and was someone who made everybody around him smile. He was a dear friend and someone I will truly miss.”
Another Chester County head coach that was a Coatesville native and someone who looked up to Smith was Octorara head coach Gene Lambert. Lambert remembers when he was 21 years old and he was on the summer paint crew at Coatesville with Smith.
“My grandfather was head of maintenance at Coatesville so I was on the paint crew one summer,” Lambert said. “I hated painting those walls so bad and one day “Scoogie” comes in and with a big smile, says, “Gene, are you ready to paint?”. And I just smiled and had a great day. And I remember watching him when I was growing up when he coached the Coatesville girls team and then when he won the state title He was a big inspiration to me.
“I looked up to him and Eric Anderson because there were not many black head coaches back then and “Scoogie” was a big example for me. He meant so much to me. We even coached against each other in the 2012 Ches-Mont League championship game. He was Coatesville. He was the only one who brought home the state title when Coatesville had such a history of great talent.”
Smith started his coaching career at Devon Prep where he coached from 1975-82. In 1982 he became the Coatesville girls head coach and then after two years as an assistant with the Coatesville boys program, he was named head coach in 1995.
Smith’s teams won eight straight Ches-Mont league championships and he also led the Red Raiders to two District 1 titles, in 2000 and 2001. In 2012 he came back for one year as head boys coach and won another Ches-Mont league championship and led the Red Raiders to the PIAA quarterfinals. Smith was a member of the Ches-Mont and Chester County Hall of Fame’s and he compiled over 300 wins in his illustrious career.
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