GIRLS BASKETBALL: Smiley takes over as Venice head coach

VENICE — Venice didn’t have to look too far for its next leader of the girls basketball program.

Tyson Smiley, 26, accepted the girls basketball head-coaching job last week after spending the last two seasons at the school as the junior varsity head coach.

Smiley takes over for former head coach Jeremy Martin, who resigned after five seasons with the program in April.

“This opportunity means the world to me,” Smiley said. “Especially as a younger guy, there aren’t too many guys running their own program at this age. It’s a blessing to me, and I hope it’ll mean a lot to the kids and the community in the future.”

Smiley — hailing originally from Omaha, Nebraska — has an extended background in the game of basketball.

A graduate of Creighton Preparatory School in Nebraska, Smiley had a decorated high school basketball career that included a state championship victory in 2015.

“Going to that school really molded me,” Smiley said. “I grew up in a rougher neighborhood, so going to a school like that really was like an escape for me. I took both school and basketball very seriously when I was there, because I knew it was a way out for me.”

After high school, he had a stint at Southwestern Community College in Iowa before spending three years at Division II Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. During his time there, Smiley averaged 15 points, six rebounds and four assists per game as a point guard.

Smiley’s coaching career began back at his high school alma mater, where he was an assistant for two years at Creighton Prep.

In 2022, Smiley moved down to Venice and applied for the open JV position at the school. Since then, he’s turned Venice’s JV team into one of the best in the area, with a 30-6 record over the past two years.

“When I was in high school, I just kind of started to realize that I had a passion for teaching kids, and that they had a passion for me,” Smiley said. “I had a number of very important people in my life tell me that I’d be a good coach, and a good role model one day.”

According to Smiley, the trust his players had in him was the biggest key to his success since arriving at Venice.

“All the kids really bought in quickly,” Smiley said. “Early on, I wasn’t too worried about the X’s and O’s, I was just focused on building relationships and showing the kids that there was someone in the community that would show up for them and sacrifice anything they could for them. I think the boys realized I’d sacrifice anything just to see them have success a couple nights a week.”

Smiley hopes to build that same kind of trust with the girls on what’s a very experienced roster.

“It’s definitely going to be an adjustment in some ways for me,” Smiley said. “I’m going from coaching freshmen to a bunch of experienced seniors. I was teaching basketball with the JV team mostly. Now, I’ll really be coaching this group. I have a bunch of players that know the principles of the game now.”

Smiley’s being thrust into a pretty positive situation in his first year.

Venice’s girls basketball team went 17-10 last season, advancing all the way to the 7A Region 3 championship game.

The Indians are slated to return their top-five scorers from a season ago in Tessa O’Leary, Zoe O’Leary, Addison Ivery, Izzy Leggett and Riley Martin.

“Basketball IQ stands out about this group,” said Smiley of his new team. “Most of the girls that are going to play big minutes this year have deep postseason experience. They are a very experienced group, and honestly, I think we’re going to run into a lot of different situations that are going to be new for me, but not for them. We have three or four girls that are fully capable of leading this group and being team captains, and that’s exciting.”

When it comes to Smiley’s coaching philosophy as a whole, it revolves around the defensive side of the court. He believes in tenacious defense that helps lead to success at the opposite basket.

“I’m very emotional when it comes to basketball,” Smiley said. “My teams like to get up and guard. We want to make people uncomfortable, and we want to win games defensively. We’re going to play at a pace that a lot of people probably aren’t used to. That’s just my coaching style. We guard for 90 feet, we cause turnovers and we get out and run.”