More Than Just a Game- Meet “Smitty”

If you playeded hockey in Dartmouth, chances are you came across Paul “Smitty” Smith. He was a fixture in Dartmouth arenas since 1995 when he helped his Dartmouth Spartans High School team as a student. In fact, while helping the Spartans, he had two Whaler dads as players. Smitty himself dressed for a Spartans game and played 4 or 5 shifts. The game was a sell out and he proudly shared he got a tripping penalty.

Head Coach of the Whalers U15 Major team, Tony Breau, met Smitty in 1997 when he would watch Tony’s Bantam AAA games. When Tony moved on to Major Midget, he went along as well. He was a fan favorite and as much a part of the team as anyone.

From 1998 to the early 2000’s, Smitty was with the Dartmouth Whalers Minor Hockey Association, but it was in 2004 that he joined his friend Tony and they coached the Atom AAA team. A coaching highlight was when that team won the PW International B Division in front of 14,000 people in Quebec. He and Tony fondly shared that Matthew Highmore scored in a shootout in the semifinals to help them move on to the finals. The two friends remained together, coaching the U15 Major Whalers from 2017-present. They took their coaching courses at the same time and Smitty was fully certified.

Away from the rink, Coach Smitty competed in the Special Olympics in the early 1990’s and was a gold medalist in swimming. He also worked for Walmart for over 20 years. He coached more than 500 players and knew everyone. Over the years, he won the Ross Drake Award (SEDMHA) and volunteered for many years with the SEDMHA tournament.

His favorite part of coaching was always the kids and road trips. He was always happy and positive. Chris Guildford, GM of the Whalers U15 Major team, shared that, “Having Smitty on our team was about much more than hockey”. Tony added, “Most kids coming into the program were looking forward to being around Smit Dog. The reason we have had success as coaches was that he was the good cop to my bad cop. Although he did love when I skated the players.”

Many of Smitty’s former players stayed in contact and he was quite popular at tournaments. For the past 20 years, he had been the head coach for three beer league teams/year. His reach in the hockey community went far.

When asked what advice he gives to his players, he responded, “Play hard. Play well. Do what you can do.” Tony summed things up in a sentence, “He treats everybody the way we should treat everybody.”

The players, coaches, staff, and parents agreed that the Whalers U15 Major were incredibly fortunate to have Coach Smitty on the roster and we will all miss him dearly. He was one of a kind.