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Inspiring Women: Katie Smith Shares Her Love of Basketball With the Next Generation

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Inspiring Women: Katie Smith Shares Her Love of Basketball With the Next Generation

The ex-Ohio State superstar serves as an assistant coach for Upper Arlington High School during the WNBA offseason.

They couldn’t have asked for a better game. In January, the Upper Arlington girls’ basketball team watched Ohio State University beat Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes 100-92 in an overtime thriller at the Schottenstein Center. As the UA players absorbed the electric atmosphere, they also noticed a No. 30 jersey hanging in the rafters with a familiar name on it: Katie Smith, Buckeye hoops legend, women’s basketball pioneer and volunteer assistant coach for the UA team.  

The moment reminded the players that Smith isn’t just a good-natured, down-to-earth basketball junkie who rebounds their shots and tweaks their shooting form. She’s also one of the greatest ever to play the sport. “She’s so humble despite her incredible accomplishments,” says UA point guard and co-captain Quinn Buttermore. “She’s an even better person than a basketball player, which is saying a lot. I’m definitely so grateful for the privilege of getting to be around her.” 

Smith joined the UA staff after head coach John Wanke took over the program in 2021. A longtime Upper Arlington resident, Smith wanted to get more involved in the community; she had recently married, and she and her wife, Yesenia, are raising their two kids, Yeslynn and Lenin, in UA. After a three-minute phone conversation with Wanke, she signed up for the high school gig. 

Since then, the UA girls have been on the upswing. The team finished 22-4 this year, improving for the third consecutive season. Smith sometimes misses a practice or game because of a conflict with her main job as the associate head coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, but she’s with the UA squad most of the time. She offers feedback, serves as a sounding board for Wanke and works with the players individually. “We love seeing her around, and we all realize how big of a deal it is for us to be able to have her as a resource,” says Buttermore, a senior who’s been with the team for three years. The feeling is mutual for Smith. “They’re awesome kids, and they’re so funny, and they try so hard,” she says.  

This summer, Smith will return to Minneapolis for the WNBA season, one of the most anticipated in years thanks to the arrival of Clark, who, as this story went to print, was expected to be the top overall pick in the league’s April 15 draft. Clark and other young stars have turned women’s basketball from a niche sport that Smith and other pioneers helped establish into a mainstream phenomenon. “I love it,” says Smith, who retired as women’s pro basketball’s all-time leading scorer (Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi has since eclipsed her). “I get so excited about it.” 

But Smith also wants to keep giving back, and her UA gig fits into that mission. She says head coach Wanke is building a legacy in UA, and she wants to be a part of it. She’s already looking forward to next season. “We have a nice eighth-grade crew coming up the pipeline,” she says. 

This story is from the Inspiring Women feature in the May 2024 issue of Columbus Monthly. 

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