Legendary Oak Hill Academy coach Steve Smith announces retirement after 2021-22 high school basketball season
A titan in high school basketball is calling it a career.
Steve Smith, the country's winningest active high school basketball coach, is retiring at the end of the 2021-22 season after 37 years as national power Oak Hill Academy's head coach, the boarding school announced Tuesday morning.
"It has been my honor to be the head basketball coach at Oak Hill academy for the past 37 years," Smith wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. "I will always be a Warrior for life!"
Smith, 66, told Forbes.com he wanted to retire while he was in good health and spend more time with his two grandsons. The three-time Naismith national high school boys basketball coach of the year, four-time USA Today High School Coach of the Year will leave among the most decorated coaches to ever grace the stage.
Smith has coached 35 NBA Draft picks, such as Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo and Rod Strickland, as well as 34 McDonald's All-Americans and 225 future Division I players.
He accrued a 1,225-98 career record — with an all-time best .942 winning percentage — and won nine national championships at the private baptist boarding school for grades 8 through 12 in Mouth of Wilson, Va. Oak Hill's last GEICO National Championship was in 2016. This season, his Warriors (23-7) are the No. 12 team in the SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25 national rankings and a founding member of the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference.
He reflected on his career and Oak Hill's rise to a national power on an episode The Iso podcast with Dan Dickau in November 2020.
"I've always enjoyed coaching in high school," Smith said on podcast. "Oak Hill's a little different. You're not just coaching high school, you're coaching high level athletes.
"I feel like I have a great job, that's why I've stayed as long as I have at this level."
Listen to the full episode here:
