Luke Smith served on the EMU staff for seven seasons (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)When one door closes, another one opens.
That's the case with Luke Smith. When Eastern Michigan announced it was eliminating its wrestling program immediately at the end of the 2017-18 season, the long-time Eagle assistant coach found a new opportunity open up at California State University, Bakersfield as an assistant coach.
And now the former Eagle is now a Roadrunner.
When Smith got the bad news about EMU wrestling's fate, he contacted Manny Rivera, Cal State Bakersfield head coach.
"I didn't know what his next step was or what, but when he reached out to me, right away I was like, 'Hey, are you serious?'" Rivera told the Bakersfield Californian . "... I knew bringing him in would be huge for our program."
"I've had a long relationship with Manny," Smith said. "We've been friends since our (collegiate) competition days when our schools were battling. … Just always stayed in touch and kind of picked each other's brains. We had similar philosophies so I knew it would be a good fit and a good opportunity."
Smith partially fills the places of former assistants Sean Boyle and Jeff Silveira. Boyle was hired by the University at Buffalo.
Luke Smith brings an impressive wrestling/coaching resume to CSUB.
At Chippewa Falls High in Wisconsin, Smith was a two-time state champion, finishing his career with a 117-2 record. In addition, Smith finished fourth at the Greco-Roman Olympic Trials in 2004 and also captured fourth place at the Senior Freestyle World Team Trials in 2006.
Smith then headed east to Central Michigan University, where he was a four-time NCAA Division I championships qualifier at 125 pounds. He was the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year for the 2004-05 season.
After graduating from CMU in 2008, Smith served as a volunteer assistant coach at his college alma mater for one season before heading to Old Dominion University in Virginia as a volunteer coach for two seasons. In 2011, Smith was named as an assistant coach of the Eastern Michigan mat program, where he served for seven seasons before the program got the axe in March 2018.
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