Horace Smith

Horace Smith enters his first season with UCF Softball in the fall of 2015. 

Smith joins the Knights after spending the last year working at the Norfolk Baseball Academy, where he developed the strength and speed training for eight various baseball and softball teams. Prior to that, he spent the 2014 softball season as an assistant coach at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He helped the Bulls to their first ever outright MAC East Division Title and the softball program was named UB's 2013-14 Team of the Year. UB finished the year with a school-record 30 victories and remained over .500 wire-to-wire. He served as the outfield and hitting coach for a team that set offensive single-season records for batting average (.266), hits (367), doubles (71), triples (12), home runs (34), runs scored (236) and runs batted in (208).

In 2013, Smith helped Hampton University to a 34-26 record and a MEAC Conference Championship, which sent the Pirates to their first NCAA Tournament since 1996. 

Prior to coaching at Hampton, Smith was a pitcher and captain of the Norfolk State baseball team. He also served as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). He graduated from Norfolk State with a bachelor's in exercise science, specializing in kinesiotherapy.

Smith is a native of Emporia, Va., where he attended Greensville County High School and was an all-district player in football, basketball, and baseball. He was named Region I Male Athlete of the Year in 2007.