Head coach Queen Smith is entering her second season as head coach of the Livingstone women's basketball program. Smith provides a bevy of experience in coaching at multiple levels and brings a demonstrated record of accomplishment for fostering the personal development of the student-athlete into proud community leaders and exceptionally successful alumni. We look forward to fully supporting her transition into this role and are excited to have her join our Blue Bear family.
In her first full season, Smith endured victories big and small and set the tone for a successful coaching tenure to come. The team finished with a 7-15 regular season record, including five conference victories. The highlight of the season came at the conclusion of the regular season, which saw the Blue Bears rattle off two consecutive victories against their biggest rivals, including a 59-45 road win against Johnson C. Smith, and a 48-41 home victory on senior day against Winston-Salem State. Of the team's many individual accomplishments, coach Smith coached freshman Nielle Reaves to a CIAA Rookie of the Year honor.
Smith is a native of New Haven, Connecticut, where she was a standout tri-sport athlete competing in volleyball (All-Area), outdoor track (All-State), and basketball (All-State, All-Conference). She was highly recruited out of high school and ended up earning a full scholarship to Quinnipiac University. During her career, she was the three-time Northeast Conference-10 Defensive Player of the Year, a feat no one else has ever accomplished in league history. She became the 10th player in school history to score 1000 points and earned an All-Star selection on the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference All Star Team. She ended her career in the top 10 of all time in school history in scoring and top five all time in assists (476) and steals (394). To date, while remaining top-20 all time in scoring, she still holds those rankings. Smith is a five-time Hall of Famer including in the Quinnipiac University, the Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame chosen for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). When asked what sparked her drive, she said "Let your work do the talking on the floor", and "You can win, but you'll never outwork me." She graduated in 1996 with dual Bachelor degrees in Sociology, Health and Science Studies.
Smith brought her unyielding work ethic forward through scholastic, athletic, and mentoring endeavors. She returned to her home city after college as the Career Specialist for the New Haven Board of Education. Concurrently, she served as the head women's volleyball coach, assistant outdoor track coach, and head basketball coach for both teams at Wilbur Cross High School, where she was named Coach of the Year by two separate organizations. She ran the grant-funded National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) at Yale University, supervising all aspects of operations and project management. She was the Activity Director for nearly 10 years until tapped to be the Assistant Coach for Yale Women's Basketball team. Her ability to attract basketball recruits, strategize, and elevate the development of the backcourt guard play allowed Yale their first post-season invitation to the NIT. Through her sustained passion and off-court skills in community leadership, Smith was called to be the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Yale Women's Basketball program and co-chaired the heralded Yale-New Haven Hospital/Smilow Center Pink Zone fundraising campaign. Bringing her players to work various aspects, she raised both the city's awareness of Yale Athletics and student-athlete's sense of public duty. She has earned a State of Connecticut General Assembly Official Citation, a Secretary of State Public Service Award, a Partners In Education Award, and an Elm Ivy award for all her work.
Over the years, she enjoyed helping scores of students across a spectrum of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds realize their full aptitude. We acquired her from the prestigious Governor's School located at South Pointe High School in South Carolina, where she facilitated the Accelerate program for exceptional STEAM students. True to her creed of using athletics to cultivate exceptional character and citizenship, she continued to volunteer coach in recreation leagues and sat as assistant coach for two local high schools. Her coaching technique stems from each individually building self-value, dignity, integrity, and collective duty. It was this mantra that helped turn around one team's 0-19 record to a 20-0 regular season winning within five years. Smith was very successful at crafting the athletic player into next-level highly recruited Division I - III scholarship players that went on to have impressive careers including business, education, coaching, and even playing professional basketball overseas. Many of her players credit Smith for the focus and endurance requisite to function in their respective spaces. She wholeheartedly believes the "village" it takes to help each other never dies and it is incumbent upon us to continually look for ways to uplift each other whenever possible.
Smith moved to North Carolina in 2011, and lives with her husband Dr. David Smith Sr. and their four children, Melissa, David Jr., and twin boys Michael and Daniel. She expects that consistency, honesty, and accountability to self, team, and the larger community will be the backbone of the Blue Bear brand profile. As such, we've already won the game.
