Jeff Smith with daughter Allie and wife Kelli. Son Jake is not pictured. Courtesy of Plano ISD.
Former Lake Highlands High School football coach Jeff Smith was named Plano ISD’s athletic director at a school board meeting Tuesday night. He’s replacing Gerald Brence, who retired in December.
Smith became LHHS’ defensive coordinator a year after Scott Smith took the head coaching job in 2006. Before Jeff Smith left in 2010, the team had earned repeated playoff berths and were named bi-district champs in 2008. (Coaching with Smith at the time was offensive coordinator Lonnie Jordan.)
Smith most recently served as assistant athletic director for Prosper ISD, where Prosper High won two district championships and had 64 academic all-state athletes. Before that, he went to the playoffs in 2017 and 2018 as head coach and athletic coordinator for McKinney High.
“Jeff Smith is an exceptional leader and a well-rounded mentor and coach,” praised PISD Superintendent Sara Bonser, “offering a breadth of diverse experiences including knowledge of our Plano ISD athletics structure. In his own words, Jeff aspires to be ‘a leader worth following,’ and I look forward to seeing not just how he leads our athletic program, but also how he develops our student athletes through strong, positive experiences.”
Congratulations, Coach Smith.
