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Mark Schremmer
Mark Schremmer is a major contributor to KPREPS.com, a website dedicated to covering Kansas high school football. A Pittsburg native and Pittsburg State University graduate, he is assistant news editor at The Topeka Capital-Journal and has covered sports in Kansas since 2000.
Sports
2011-11-21 13:07:27
300th career victory, Chuck Smith
Q: St. Mary’s-Colgan’s football coach Chuck Smith recently earned his 300th career win. What is the significance?
A: The St. Mary’s-Colgan Panthers’ recent win against Lyndon earned coach Chuck Smith his 300th career victory as head coach of a Kansas high school football team. The victory makes Smith only the sixth coach in state history to achieve the milestone, joining Silver Lake’s C.J. Hamilton, Clifton-Clyde’s Ed Buller, McPherson’s Tom Young, Sedan’s Les Davis and Smith Center’s Roger Barta. Hamilton, Young, Barta and Smith all are active coaches. Smith had a 300-63 record at the time of the milestone win. Only Barta needed fewer games to reach 300 wins. The Smith Center coach boasted a 300-58 record when he captured the milestone in 2009. Nationwide, an Oct. 27 story on ESPN.com listed Summerville, S.C., coach John McKissick (1952-present) as the winningest high school football coach of all-time with 592 victories at the time of the article. The story listed the top 20, starting with McKissick at 592 and ending with Calallen-Corpus Christi, Texas coach Phil Danaher at 374 wins. It’s difficult to know for sure, but from this list and other lists from various news outlets it should be safe to assume Smith’s milestone puts him somewhere between the top 100 to 200 coaches nationwide. Smith remains humble about the accomplishment. “It’s a neat milestone,” Smith said. “It puts me with some neat people. But I think about the coaches that work just as hard or maybe even harder that don’t have that success. So my thank you goes out to all of the coaches in the state of Kansas who work with kids whether they win or not, because they’re making America better. I really believe that.” Smith grew up in Atchison, and then played football collegiately at Pittsburg State University. His first head coaching job came in 1979 at Topeka Hayden. Smith directed the Wildcats to a 3-6 record that season. He hasn’t had that many losses in a season since. Smith married a Colgan graduate, Beth (Wachter) Smith, and took over the Panthers football program in 1980 from Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame coach Frank Crespino. At Colgan, Smith built a family literally and figuratively. Chuck and Beth raised seven children (Lori, Christy, Nick, Sarah, Mark, Jeff and Chas). Those seven children resulted in four quarterbacks and three cheerleaders. All four sons played in the Kansas Shrine Bowl and all four went on to play at Pittsburg State. Smith’s extended family at Colgan also has been important. Defensive coordinator Wayne Cichon has been with Smith for 29 of his 32 years at Colgan. “I owe a special thanks to Coach Cichon,” Smith said. “I just turn the defense over to him, and he does a great job with it every year.” The extended family also includes numerous other assistant coaches over the years, loads of All-State players and even more players who just knew their role. With that family, Smith entered the 2011 season with five state championships (1984, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003) and 11 state championship appearances. Those accolades include four consecutive state championships and 66 consecutive wins, which was a state record at the time. The run also included seven consecutive appearances in the state title game. Brought to you by Vietti’s Auto Body and GMG Sports
 
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