SMOOT TO COACH LADY FALCONS VOLLEYBALL

Saint Thomas Aquinas Regional Catholic High School has selected Larry Smoot as the head coach for the Lady Falcons Volleyball team.

            Smoot served as assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana University from 2013-2015. Prior to his stint with the Lady Lions, he was assistant coach at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, a program which was consistently ranked in the top 25 nationally. He helped LMU to eleven NCAA Division I post-season appearances and three West Coast Conference Championships.

            Smoot began his coaching career at Torrance High School with the boys’ volleyball program. He added the girls’ team to his coaching duties and led them to national rankings of No. 12 and No. 10 respectively. His girls’ program captured the Bay League Championship for three seasons of his four-year tenure.

            He was the head coach and owner of the South Bay Girls’ Volleyball Club and the head coach for the Torrance Volleyball Club (boys), which won numerous USAV national championships. His South Bay 18-and-under team advanced to the Kaepa Festival Tournament  Final Four on four occasions and won the national championship in 1993. During the summer of 2006, Smoot coached the South Bay 18-1s to a bronze medal at the American Division Junior National Championships in Atlanta.

            His 2016 Louisiana Volleyball Club team finished fifth at the AAU National Championships in Orlando. He has been honored with the Distinguished Service Award for Junior Volleyball by the Kaepa Volleyball Festival. More than 100 of his former players have advanced to college teams.

            Smoot was an All-Conference volleyball player at El Caminio Junior College before playing one season at Long Beach State University. He is a former USVBA All-American in the co-ed division and has won the USVBA co-ed division open championships twice as a player-coach.