Rodney Smith is in his first season as the head track and cross country coach and has the task of building the program from scratch.

Smith returns to Abilene after a lengthy background as both a track and field and cross country coach and also in the business world. Smith has spent the last two and a half years as the head girls and assistant boys track coach and the head boys and girls cross country coach at Uvalde High School.

Prior to that, he was in the construction business in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Dalhart and Abilene Christian High School.

He was an assistant coach at Abilene Christian for seven years and also was the head track and cross country coach at David Libscombe University in Nashville.

Smith earned a master’s degree in education at Southern Arkansas where he was also the head cross country coach and assistant track coach. He did his undergrad work at ACU and was a double major in health and physical education.

He and his wife of 27 years Annette have four adult children. Quinn is in Law School at Miami, Fla., Toni works for the Department of Defense in Washington D.C., Laura lives in St. Louis and Jason is a junior at Abilene Christian.