In what began as a two-fold dream between either becoming a Harlem Globetrotter or a women’s basketball coach at 5 years old, Lock Haven women’s basketball coach Jennifer Smith chose the latter. An avid sports lover, Smith had a knack for being around any sport she could get her hands on. When it came to basketball, though, it grabbed her attention the most.

LHU had been riding a program-record 18-game win streak heading into last Wednesday night’s road PSAC matchup with Millersville, Smith’s alma mater. Smith had a chance to become LHU women’s basketball’s all-time leader for wins in program history along with pushing Lock Haven’s win streak to 19 games.

Smith and the Bald Eagles did so, winning 66-54 to claim her 162nd win of her 16-year coaching tenure at Lock Haven, surpassing former Lock Haven coach Frank Scarfo from 1986-97. Smith’s historic program mark came at a perfect time, and the win highlighted the grit-and-grind of a journey it took the 18-year coach to get to where she is at.

“It’s pretty ironic that the math worked out at where I could break the record at Millersville,” Smith said. “So that definitely made it pretty special, having my college coaches there, some old teammates and my high school coach. So, it was pretty special it worked out that way.

“Priority No. 1 was keeping the streak going one game at a time. We made it a little stressful but we pulled it out,” Smith added.

Lock Haven has since dropped its first PSAC game, halting the streak at 19 games. It was also LHU’s first road loss of the season.

Like many coaches, Smith has a rich history in sports but the game of hoops is where her heart was. Smith was a two-sport athlete at Millersville who thrived in basketball during the winter and track and field during the spring.

Smith was a track and field All-American in javelin in 2000 and played on two PSAC East title teams in 2000 and in 2002. Moreover, Smith helped the Marauders to three NCAA national tournament appearances in her playing tenure.

When picking a four-year school to play for during high school, playing for a woman head coach was always in the back of Smith’s head because she played under men for a majority of her career. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree and pursuing a master’s, Smith was passionate about taking the route to become a coach, although she knew it wasn’t for anyone lacking a faint of heart.

Smith served as the graduate assistant in the sports information department and volunteered as an assistant coach on the women’s team. Her duties from 2002-2004 included the tireless tactics of the game that needed to be done, like scouting, recruiting, guard development and camps, but it provided the nuances of coaching that Smith needed.

“I got my feet wet in other aspects of college athletics as well so being able to play there for four years and help out for two years,” Smith said. “Getting to see the other side of things was important for me to experience in order to get to a head coach.”

Following two seasons at Millersville, Smith took on a head coaching stint at NCAA Division II Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware. Smith helped to turn that program around in just two seasons, helping the Lightning to their most wins in school history in 2006-07 with an 18-11 overall record that included a 14-8 mark in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC).

The historical run left a mark on GBC women’s basketball history and gave Smith an idea of how fun coaching could be, but it took a lot of energy off the floor to get there. Smith had been volunteering as an assistant coach and taking graduate classes, so she was ready to take on any challenge. Instead, this time, Smith was just 25-years-old at that time and served as a part-time Sports Information Director while substitute teaching, managing the task of three jobs all while trying to build a program from the ground up.

“I got my feet wet early which was great and I was grateful to make the playoffs in my first season ever there and in my second season we had set the school record for most wins in a season and made the conference semifinals,” Smith explained. “I was probably naive thinking coming to Lock Haven you could turn something around as quickly but the PSAC is a different beast compared to the CACC but it was good to be able to coach at a young age.”

As former coaches and teammates of Smith’s over the years came out to support the possible feat, it was an honorable night for how far Smith has brought the program. When the four-year basketball letterwinner was hired at LHU back in 2007, she was forced to take on the task of rebuilding the Bald Eagles program.

The task was far from easy, and in today’s day and age — where many coaches would have fled for another school — Smith decided to embrace the challenge and stick out the pain and adversity of 11 consecutive losing seasons before she earned her first one.

Zack Smith, Jennifer’s assistant, has been on LHU’s sidelines for 13 seasons now and has been an instrumental part of the rebuilding process. A 2008 Penn State grad, Zack has played an integral role as a recruiter.

It wasn’t until Jennifer’s 10th season (2016-17) and Zack’s fifth until the coaches began to see players earn recognition, like Lysa Mealing, who led all of NCAA Division II in rebounding during that season. Mealing followed that up with PSAC East Player of the Year, earning a spot on the PSAC All-Second Team list her senior season. Additionally, Smith reached back-to-back playoffs in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons for the first time since the 1990-91.

Lock Haven continued finding its success in seasons to come when Smith earned her 100th win at LHU in the 2018-19 season and then followed up with a second consecutive winning season during the 2019-2020 season. That’s when Smith got her players to dig in and the Bald Eagles limited its opponents to a school record low of 36% shooting from the floor and a mere 63 points per game.

As the Bald Eagles slowly began to find an identity and establish their footing as a program, it was moments like last Wednesday on the road that have made both Smith’s rocky journey worth it.

“It’s just being dedicated to the program and putting a lot of hard work in. It’s not just me, Zack (Smith) has been with me for all but one season so it’s just dedicating everything we had to the program,” Smith said. “You hope you get a season like this but it’s important for us to be building up strong, young women ready to graduate and take on the world and we’re really proud of our alumni that have come through the program that are still involved. You just hope to stick around long enough where you get a special season.”

That team success has translated to player standouts such as Ahnera Parker and Jaynelle Robinson, who earned PSAC East Second Team honors a few years back. Now, it’s standouts like Alana Robinson, sophomore standout who was named PSAC East Freshman of the Year last season and currently holds the single-season blocks record after breaking her own from her first collegiate season, and sophomore Jenadia Jordan, The Haven’s leading scorer this season, that are directing the charge.

No matter how this season ends for Lock Haven, one thing is for sure: it has a coach that’s down to ride for her players no matter the circumstances. As calm, cool and collective that coach Smith can be, she can be seen just as vocal and passionate about the game like any other coach.

The standard was set by coach Smith a while back before the current players could see the history being written. But somewhere along those lines, as a five-year-old with coaching dreams and a young assistant making necessary sacrifices for something not yet seen, Smith had dreamed of the season Lock Haven is having.