Outrunning the Odds: USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner feature on Luke Smith

Photo: Cal State Bakersfield’s Luke Smith (center) and assistant coach Ernest James (left) coached AJ Ferrari in the 2025 NCAA semis in Philadelphia. Photo by Tony Rotundo.

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 32 Issue 3, which printed on Dec. 3, 2025. 

By Tristan Warner

Like many other coaches, Luke Smith wanted to help young people chase their dreams.

A two-time NCAA Blood-Round finisher for the Central Michigan Chippewas under the legendary Tom Borrelli, Smith put together a highly successful career in his own right. Still, he had a bad taste in his mouth when it was time to hang his shoes up.

“I didn’t get what I wanted in college,” Smith reflected. “I was wrestling well my senior year and injured my shoulder. I couldn’t lift my arm above my head and had to get cortisol injections to finish the season. I wanted to help people accomplish their goals and not have regrets or feel bad about the way it ended like I did.

“Once I started coaching, I just really re-fell in love with the sport in a different way. I had been wrestling since I was three years old, but I had never been on the coaching side. It was all so new, and there were so many things I didn’t know. I just tried to be a sponge.”

In Smith’s first season as an assistant at his alma mater, he helped true freshman and fellow 125-pounder Scotti Sentes earn All-American status. Despite the successful coaching accolade, Smith realized he still needed to make adjustments.

“I didn’t want to give him anything, and Coach Borrelli got mad at me,” Smith remembered. “He told me, ‘You’ve got to work with him. You’re his coach now.’

“When you’re coaching it is about them now. It had always been about me. Nobody told me, and I only ever wrestled one way.”

After coaching stints at CMU, Old Dominion, Eastern Michigan and now having served as head coach at Cal Bakersfield for seven seasons, it is safe to say the Chippewa Falls, Wis. native has learned a lot in his two decades mentoring collegiate student-athletes.

It is also safe to say he has overcome his fair share of adversity. Smith was fresh off a successful season at Eastern Michigan, having just guided Sa’Derian Perry to All-American honors for the Eagles in 2018, when the school announced it was terminating the program three days after the NCAA tournament.

Shortly thereafter, Smith joined friend Manny Rivera at Cal State Bakersfield and served as an assistant before Rivera stepped away to pursue a non-wrestling opportunity. Smith, a first-time head coach, took over at the helm of the Roadrunners in the midst of the pandemic.

“It was extremely challenging,” Smith recalled. “It helped I had a very good relationship with our sport administrator at the time. It was tough because you’re trying to keep your guys focused on the controllables, but you are just talking with them over Zoom chats.

“I tried to find creative ways to keep them motivated, not even knowing if we were going to have a season. The biggest challenge was everything not dealing with wrestling. The mental health aspect at that time was huge. These guys weren’t able to live the way they were used to.

“We lost some guys that year, unfortunately. We had a lot of first-generation college students and they needed that structure, but everything was online.”

Smith got three Roadrunners to Nationals that season. What helped pull him through most, he recalled, was checking in with his former coaches and coaching mentors who felt equally in the dark during the unknown, frustrating times.

“I remember talking to (Tom) Borrelli, and he said, ‘We are all on even footing because nobody knows what is going on. If you can handle this chaos, you can surely handle it when it goes back to normal.’”

In the years since, Smith has continued to build the Roadrunners one step at a time. His squads have produced one All-American in 2025 NCAA third-place finisher AJ Ferrari, eight NCAA qualifiers, three Pac-12 champions, 10 Academic All-Pac-12 honorees, six NWCA All-Academic Team members, and two CSC Academic All-District honorees.

All of this while working with a budget that, at one point, was the only community-funded wrestling program in DI wrestling. He has become accustomed to trying to maximize what he has and out-developing programs that have more resources.

“There were a lot of challenges with the school, which has a history of great individuals. A while back the program almost got dropped, and then we were self-funded.

“But the biggest thing I’ve learned is nobody is going to feel sorry for you; you have to get it done. That is what Tom Borrelli always told me. Focus on solutions not problems and utilize the resources you have. Some coaches choose to complain about what they don’t have instead of focusing on maximizing what they do have.”

Smith advocated that it is a fun time to be a part of the program.

“Now, it is a very exciting time; we just went back under the school for funding. We have our own stand-alone facility that will be getting renovated after the season, and we will be adding another coach to our staff.”

As Smith has made a living searching for under-the-radar recruits in the Golden State, he elaborated on what qualities he looks for in prospective recruits.

“I look at personality and see if they’re going to be the right fit. I like kids who love the sport, are students of the sport and want to get better. It helps when they have a chip on their shoulder and want to prove themselves.

In a sport where nothing is given, Smith has surely made a career out of proving to his pupils that everything worth having can still be built.

“This is a very important time of their life, going from high-school boy to a real-world man. We are trying to prepare them to be successful. The same things that’ll make you the best person you can be are the same things that’ll make you the best wrestler you can be.”

Through every challenge, Smith continues to show his student-athletes that success isn’t about having more. It is about doing more with what you have.