Softball
- Title:
- Director of Operations
- Phone:
- 737-2789
Heather Smith finished her 18th season as the Director of Softball Operations at Oregon State in 2019, having also served as an assistant coach during her time in Corvallis.
Smith’s operations position focuses on travel planning, equipment, scheduling and special project coordination.
Smith rejoined the Beaver staff in September of 2004 for her second stint as an assistant coach and her fourth season overall in the dugout. Smith helped lead Oregon State to its first ever Pac-10 championship in 2005 and reel off a school record 28-game winning streak in 2006. She and the rest of the Beaver coaching staff were honored as the 2005 Speedline/NFCA Pacific Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
Prior to her return to Oregon State, Smith spent two years outside of the college coaching ranks working as a personal trainer and coaching softball at Desert Hot Springs High School in Palm Springs, Calif.
Smith, who was the first recruit to sign a letter of intent to play for Kirk Walker at Oregon State, played for the Beavers from 1995-99 and helped lead Oregon State to its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999. She enjoyed her most successful season as a senior, when she batted .252 with 32 hits and 12 RBI and was third on the team with six doubles. She was recognized as an honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic Team selection in 1999.
The 1999 Beavers had a school record 47 wins and finished one game shy of heading to the College World Series.
Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food management from OSU in 1998 and originally planned to give up her final year of eligibility after graduation. But, after returning to Corvallis to participate in an alumni game in October 1998, she decided to return to Oregon State to continue her studies and play her final year of softball eligibility.
She served as assistant girls’ basketball coach at Canby High School, her alma mater, for part of the 1998-99 season until deciding to return to Oregon State.
Smith worked as a coach at Oregon State’s winter and summer softball camps and clinics from 1994-98, and she also worked at the Oregon State women’s basketball camp in 1996.
The former Heather Chinn, a Portland native, married Mikiah Smith in August, 1999. The two started a construction company together in 2018 in Corvallis called College Hill Homes. The couple has a daughter, Kiya, who was born in October of 2003, and a son, Elijah, who was born in January of 2006.
