ECC's Smart to Head Track Coach Association

Veteran Essex County College men’s and women’s track coach Michael Smart has been elected president of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Track & Field Coaches Association. The two-year term begins Aug. 1.

“I will basically be the liaison between the coaches and the national office,” he said of his duties, which will be conducted out of his office in the Physical Education Building at the main Newark campus.

As part of his duties, he will have involvement in setting up the national championships and other meets. The 2014 NJCAA indoor championship is set for New York City in March. He said he will reach out to a number of area Division 3 track coaches to help ensure more East Coast participation in that event. ECC is a Division 1 school for track & field.   

Smart has headed the college’s track program since 1986. He was named an All-American twice in the 1970s while attending ECC. The ECC women’s team won NJCAA national indoor titles in 1997 and 2007. During his ECC tenure, Smart has been named NJCAA Coach of the Year four times and honored by Region XIX three times. He was also named District/Region Coach of the Year 16 times.

He has developed two Olympic Gold Medalists (Melaine Walker, 400 meter hurdles in 2008; and Demetrius Pinder, 4x400 meter relay in 2012), eight Olympic medalists overall, 38 Olympians, four World Champions, 275 NJCAA National Champions, 419 All-Americans, and over 450 All-Region XIX performers.

His student-athletes have more than an outstanding 90 percent graduation rate and many have gone on to run for major colleges and universities.