Athletics Feature
From the Centennial Archives: 1978—Assistant Coach Fred Smith and Head Coach Ben Braun (upper left)
with the men's basketball team in front of Ledwidge Hall. Also above as a player (second row, fifth from left)
is current Golf Coach and former Assistant Basketball Coach under Smith, Al Sandifer.
The Building Years
In the early years of Siena Heights’
intercollegiate athletics, Steve Balyo was
the athletic director as well as the men’s
basketball, baseball and cross country
coach. When he left in the summer
of 1977, the college approached Smith
about becoming the men’s head basket-
ball coach. He declined.
“I’m a kid. I can’t do it,” Smith re-
membered at the time.
New Athletic Director Orby Moss
then called up a young Wisconsin high
school basketball coach and offered him
the job. Ben Braun was only a year older
than Smith, but accepted the job. Braun
and Smith, who stayed on as an assistant,
became a dynamic duo in building Si-
ena’s fledgling men’s basketball program.
“Ben was a tireless worker,” said
Smith of his mentor, who went on to
coach at NCAA Division I schools East-
ern Michigan, California and Rice.
“He could get it out of you. We worked
all the time. We were all over recruiting.
Everywhere.”
Braun brought a breakneck style of
basketball that featured full-court pres-
sure and intense man-to-man defense
that appealed to Smith.
“We grew together as coaches,” Smith
said of Braun. “We knew that with the
athletes we had, we had to press, run
and guard people. Ben could get inside
your head, and he would drive you. He
taught me how to work, how to organize,
and that players win.”
Smith was given control of the junior
varsity basketball program, where he
spent the next five or six years honing
his head coaching skills.
“That taught me how to coach,”
Smith said.
Of course, he also led the cross coun-
try and golf teams to championships. In
fact, his 1983 cross country team became
the first Siena Heights program to qualify
for the NAIA nationals. Those experi-
ences prepared him for a much larger
role within the Siena Heights athletic
program.
‘Blue-collar Institution’
In 1983, the athletic director position
became available, and Smith decided to
apply.
Smith served as interim athletic di-
rector for a time in 1978 to bridge a gap,
and used that experience in making a
jump to a college athletic director.
“I was ready because I knew athlet-
ics,” said Smith, who also credited his
Siena Heights master’s degree in counsel-
ing. “It was my life. I learned it was about
handling people. I knew the faculty. It
was about communicating, how to treat
people and how to be organized.”
Reflections Summer ’19 | 17