Christy Smith joined the Valparaiso University women’s basketball coaching staff in August of 2008 as an assistant coach and heads into her third season on the Crusader bench.

With the Crusaders Smith assists with scouting and is in charge of all of the team’s recruiting.  

In her first season with the Brown and Gold, Smith saw a post player earn Horizon League All-Newcomer Team honors, while a perimeter player was named First Team All-Conference.

Smith arrived at Valpo after serving as the head varsity girl’s basketball coach at Harrison High School in West Lafayette, Ind., during the 2007-2008 season.  The previous season, she served as an assistant coach at Lafayette Jefferson High School.

Prior to beginning her coaching career, Smith spent two seasons playing in the WNBA, after being drafted #17 overall by the Charlotte Sting in 1998.  She was the first player ever drafted out of the University of Arkansas, where she was a standout point guard and led the Razorbacks to the 1998 Final Four.

Smith was a four-time Honorable Mention Associated Press All-American as well as earning Second Team All-American honors by Women’s Basketball News Service.  She was a First Team All-Southeastern Conference selection as a senior after twice earning Second Team accolades at Arkansas.  As a rookie in 1995, she was name the SEC Freshman of the Year.

Ninth all-time at Arkansas in scoring after tallying 1,459 career points, Smith also ranks third in school history with 507 career assists and second with 239 steals.  She is second all-time in free throws made with 461, a mark that ranks 10th in SEC laurels as well.  Smith was an 83.7 percent career free throw shooter, second best in Razorback history, and holds the single season mark of 89.9 percent set in the 1994-1995 season, a year she led the nation in that category.

A three-time team captain, she was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll three times while at Arkansas.  She competed for the United States at the World University Games in Italy in 1997, winning a gold medal for her country.  She also represented the North on the 1995 Olympic Festival Team.

Smith was inducted into the University of Arkansas Hall of Honor in 2005, the fifth women’s basketball player at the school to receive such an honor.

A native of Oxford, Indiana, she earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Arkansas in 1998 and earned her master’s degree from the school in 2001 in biomechanics.