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On this date in area sports history …
Twelve years ago today, Dec. 9, 1996, Wittenberg offensive tackle Xan Smith, a Kenton Ridge graduate, was named a Division III All-American.
From News-Sun archives (Dec. 9, 1996)
SMITH’S REWARD WORTH `WEIGHT’
BEEFED-UP FIFTH-YEAR WITTENBERG SENIOR GETS ALL-AMERICA NOD.
By Ron Ware, News-Sun Sports Writer
With a rueful grin, Joe Fincham admitted that he figured Xan Smith would never play at Wittenberg.
Fincham vividly recalls that day in the spring of 1992 when he and Wittenberg’s other assistants gathered in Doug Neibuhr’s office to assess their incoming freshmen. Smith, a Kenton Ridge product, was one of Fincham’s recruits. And Fincham still remembers gulping when Neibuhr asked for his evaluation.
“I honestly said I didn’t think he could play here,” said Fincham, now the Tigers’ head coach. “As a freshman, he was just a big, kind of gangly, kid. I felt he was a smart, intelligent player, but I didn’t know if he had the strength to play here.”
Fincham laughed, knowing just how wrong he had been. But there’s no need to aplogize, because Smith got the last laugh.
The fifth-year senior offensive tackle was named Monday to the American Football Coaches Association NCAA Division III All-American team, one of the most prestigious and exclusive for which Wittenberg players are eligible.
Selections are made by a national panel of coaches, who pick only a first team.
“I’m pretty happy with that,” said Smith, the first Wittenberg player chosen to the team since middle linebacker Taver Johnson in 1993. “I’m happy I came back, anyway (for his fifth year), but that caps the season real nicely.”
Smith, a 6-foot-4, 285-pounder, was regarded by nearly every coach as the North Coast Athletic Conference’s most dominant offensive lineman.
With Smith helping to open the holes for tailback Aaron Powers and fullback Marcus Booker, the Tigers ran for a league-high 2,873 yards in finishing 9-1 overall and 7-1 in the NCAC.
But Fincham knows Smith wasn’t always a powerfully built blocker who only rarely surrendered a sack or was even called for a penalty. He came to Wittenberg as a lanky, 225-pounder who could barely bench his own weight.
“The difference with Xan, he really bought into our weight program from day one and did what he had to do to be successful here,” Fincham said, pausing before chuckling again. “I guess that shows how much I know about evaluating talent.”
Smith, who said he practically became “addicted” to working out, hit the weight room four times a week, gradually increasing his strength to the point where he could bench 365 pounds and squat 500 while running a 5.0-second 40-yard dash.
He became a starter midway through his sophomore season but then blew out his right knee on the third day of contact drills the following year. Reconstructive surgery and months of rehabilitation followed, but Smith returned, almost as good as new, for the 1995 season, earning first-team all-conference honors.
He could have graduated last spring _ he carried a 3.3 grade-point average _ but elected to return this fall to use his remaining year of eligibility, paying the $8,000 in tuition himself since Wittenberg does not offer financial aid to fifth-year students.
Although the Tigers have had many outstanding offensive linemen over the years _ Ron Cunningham, Mark Chubb, Doug Cochran, Eric Horstman and Ken Bonner all have made various All-Americans teams in the past decade _ Smith seems assured of a special place in Tiger lore … as a self-made standout.
“And he (Fincham) never lets me forget it,” Smith said, laughing. “He always tells me that story _ that I’d never play on the field here. Every time he tells it, I get a little bit shorter and a little bit skinnier. I think he’s got me down to 5-9, 155 when I came in. “I’m just happy to prove him wrong, I guess.”
Smith, who will wrap up his studies with the close of fall semester, will begin working next week as an accountant at Taylor Applegate Hughes & Associates in Springfield and is engaged to be married to Stephanie Linn, his high school sweetheart, on June 7.
In another few months, Wittenberg’s coaches will assemble in an office and begin evaluating another group of recruits. And if there’s another gangly kid with a lot of heart? If he’s like Xan Smith, he might just make it.
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