Alumna Julie Smith is now the assistant coach for the lacrosse and field hockey team and has become a role model to her players.
Smith realized she wanted to be a coach after playing at Cabrini for current head coach Jackie Neary.
“She was so inspiring and I wanted to give back like she gave me,” Smith said.
Smith helped the lacrosse program win four consecutive Colonial Sates Athletic Conference (CSAC) championships. She earned first team honors twice, led the team with six assists as a senior in 2004 and served as team captain for both lacrosse and field hockey.
Smith’s first coaching job was at Sacred Heart Country Day School in Bryn Mawr. The Cavaliers have Smith today because of Coach Neary.
Smith was at the gym where Neary saw her and asked if she could come back and coach. Neary was expecting a larger than usual freshmen class and needed assistantance with handling a large squad.
“To this day, that freshmen class that came in are some of my favorite players I have ever coached,” Smith said. “They came from the best families who are very near and dear to my heart.”
As a student-athlete, Smith traveled to Tokyo, Japan with Head Coach Neary for lacrosse games. Following her graduation, she played field hockey in both Italy and Ireland.
Freshman field hockey defender, Erin Anzideo, thinks Coach Smith is an awesome coach.
“Coach Smith has been really kind, helped us fit in and get us through our drills,” Anzideo said.
Smith has been an assistant coach for 11 years now.
“I think that’s close to a record,” Smith said.
“Her [Smith] spirit makes the team. She always brings positivity, making everyone around her happy,” Taylor Bookman, sophomore goalie for the field hockey team, said.
Smith’s best moments as a coach are winning their first game her first season after eight straight loses and celebrating back on campus by doing a victory lap around campus in the van.
Her second would be beating TCNJ in field hockey. Her worst moment is every May when she has to say goodbye to the graduating class.
“When we lose our seniors, I get so attached and hate to see them go,” Smith said.
Aside from being an assistant coach, Smith is an insurance sales broker and as of recently, a wife. Since becoming a wife, nothing has changed.
“My husband loves me, he thinks I’m the greatest assistant coach in Division III,” Smith said.
Marriage and starting a family is not going to stop Smith.
“No breaks in coaching,” Smith said, as long as Jackie is here, so am I.”
Smith’s players speak highly of her.
“I think they all love me and want to be a wife, coach, insurance broker and role model when they graduate,” Smith said.
While Smith might have just been joking, she was right.
“She inspires us because she went through exactly what we went through and went against what we are going against now,” Bookman said. “She is a great role model with where she is now in life. It shows us there is good after Cabrini.”
The team has also impacted Smith.
“They are an inspiration because of their work ethic balancing sports and school, and not doing it on scholarship but because they love it,” Smith said.
Bookman and Anzideo both expressed how they feel about Coach smith.
“[Smith is] hilarious, intense, beautiful, inspirational, blunt, really nice and outgoing,” Anzideo said.
“I love the girls and you couldn’t pay me to coach anywhere else,” Smith said. “Best kids in college sports and they are all cute too.”
