St. Thomas Aquinas football coach George Smith retires

George Smith, the architect of football national powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), announced his retirement earlier today.

Smith, 62, told reporters during an impromptu news conference on the school's campus that his decision to step down after 34 years as the Raiders' head coach has been made "for a while" but the news reverberated throughout south Florida, where Smith is an icon in the high school football coaching fraternity.

A winner of 361 games for the Raiders, Smith is one of the winningest active coaches in the country. In 2010, he led Aquinas to an undefeated season and a No. 2 ranking in the Xcellent 25 football rankings.

Under his guidance, Aquinas also developed into one of the top talent-producing high schools in the country, routinely sending multiple players to BCS schools. Smith's teams at Aquinas compiled a 361-66 record, six state championships that included last season, and two mythical national titles. Smith said he will remain as the school's athletic director and announced that defensive coordinator Rocco Casullo will take over as the football program's head coach



Smith is a member of the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Over the last four seasons, Aquinas has gone 59-2.

"I just think that now is the time for a smooth transition," Smith told the Miami Herald. "Any time you're in a place like this for a lot of years, decisions like this are tough."

This is the second time Smith has retired from coaching during his career at Aquinas. He stepped down the first time in 1992 after Aquinas won its first state title, but he returned to the sidelines three years later. He told the Herald that there will be no repeat of that this time.

"Back then it was much different," Smith said of his first retirement. "There was much thought going in to getting a degree in administration at the time. (But) I'm not 40 anymore."

The news stunned Aquinas players, who were informed by Smith of his decision during an assembly Monday in the school's gymnasium.

"You don't expect him to step down like that, but at the end of the day, everybody is eventually going to get to that point where they know what they want to do for the rest of their life," said Aquinas senior quarterback Jake Rudock, who earlier this month signed a football letter of intent with Iowa. "Ending in such a great way as he did, you can't say enough about that."



Smith's absence on the Aquinas sideline will be difficult to digest after so many years at the helm of one of the most successful football programs in the state, but the school plans to announce its 2011 football schedule by the end of the month and it is expected to include nationally ranked teams as in the past few years under Smith's guidance.

His departure shouldn't have any effects on Aquinas' proposed game in 2011 with West Coast and national juggernaut De La Salle (Concord, Calif.). The game - still under negotiations - would have potentially pitted two of the legendary coaching figures in prep football. De La Salle's Bob Ladouceur has a record of 371-24-3.

"What coach Smith has done is put St. Thomas Aquinas on the national map, so we want to play the best," Casullo told the Herald. "He built this legacy. I owe a lot to him. In the same respect, I can't be a George Smith. I never will be George Smith. There's only one George Smith."

South Florida writer Steve Dorsey and senior writer Mitch Stephens contributed to this report.

Interview of Coach Smith in 2009: