Liberty's Smith To Play at James Madison
(Bealeton, VA)--Andy Smith signed last week with the James Madison Dukes to play football this coming fall. He becomes the 16th D-1 prospect to come out of Liberty High School since 2000. Smith accepted the scholarship offer to become the Dukes punter and compete for the kickoff duties while passing on the opportunity to play soccer for the likes of the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. "It's every little kid's dream to play college football," Smith remarked when asked why football instead of soccer.
"I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to play in front of 15,000 fans; the atmosphere at college games is great. Who wouldn't want to do that?" when asked about what excites him the most of playing next fall in Harrisonburg. "I didn't really have any offers to play football until JMU got in touch with me a little more than a month ago," Smith remarked when asked how the process took place.
"I was very impressed with the coaching staff during my visit; including Coach Matthews (JMU's head coach) who stayed with me during my entire time on campus."
Smith is coming off a stellar season and career for that matter. This year he was named to the 2nd team All-State for Group AA as a kicker, as well as being named to his first All-Gameday team. Smith averaged over 42 yards per punt including 6 inside the 20 yard line and had 22 of his 47 kickoffs reach the end zone during the Eagles' season.
Coach Tommy Buzzo praised Andy for his success saying, "...he (Andy) was really able to help us win some games this season." It all started for Smith when he entered Liberty strictly wanting to play soccer, where he was a goalkeeper. Coach Buzzo approached Andy about coming out for the football team; an effort to help widen Andy's athleticism and not have "all his eggs in one basket".
For Coach Buzzo and Andy Smith the attempt panned out. Smith began to impress the Eagle faithful during his junior year when he averaged just less than 39 yards per punt and donned the nickname "Bigfoot" for his powerful kickoffs netting 30 touchbacks on 57 attempts.
I asked Andy who had made the biggest impact on his life so far, his answer; his parents. Smith commented that his father pushed him to succeed through constructive criticism, while his mother was more of the comforter.
"My parents have always been very supportive throughout my career; but I also want to thank the guys who didn't get a lot of credit during the season: Corey Lillard, Jeremy Rhodes, Luke Wells, Kyle Frederick, Matt McClurg, Anthony Thompson, Thomas Novak, Baron Young, Leighton Smith, and Bryan Jenkins."
The names Smith rattled off were the Eagles' special teams' players. Andy Smith is going to Harrisonburg but he will not forget the things he experienced while in Bealeton.
