Strength and conditioning coach Meade Smith invests in success of Saluki athletes

CARBONDALE, Ill. — To Southern Illinois strength and conditioning coach Meade Smith, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a highly touted pro prospect or a walk-on. He’s equally invested in your success, and you’ll get the same high-level treatment from him and his staff.

Smith is a demanding, detailed, no-nonsense coach, who deeply cares for the athletes under his supervision. He tailors an individual plan for each player, helping shape both mind and body to maximize their athletic potential.

“I work for everybody — past, present and future Saluki,” Smith said. “It is about trying to make SIU, right now, the best that it can be and represent every person that's been a part of SIU.”

In 2016, Smith was one of the first people hired by new head coach Nick Hill. The two have been together ever since, with Smith becoming an indispensable member of the staff, taking on a larger role than the typical strength coach.

Five Salukis who have trained under Smith have gone on to play in the National Football League, and both current and former players rave about the impact his training methods and mentorship have had on their lives and careers.

Smith grew up in rural Missouri and played collegiate baseball at Butler Community College and Mizzou. His first job at the college level was as a graduate assistant at SIU under strength coach Eric Klein from 2003-04, when he developed a passion for the Salukis.

After spending nearly a decade working in the private sector, Smith served as the head strength coach at SIUE from 2011-16, setting the stage for his return to Carbondale in 2016. Along with his wife, Saluki Softball alum Adie Viefhaus, and three boys, the Smith family calls southern Illinois “home.”

StrongDawgs conversation with Meade Smith

SD: Where are you from originally?

MS: I grew up on a family farm in Clarence, Missouri in the northeast part of the state, but then we moved to Macon, Missouri when I was in fifth grade. It's a small town with 5,000 people, about the size of Carterville.

SD: Tell me about your baseball career.

MS: I went to Butler Community College in Kansas and it was probably the best two years of my life, as far as playing highly competitive baseball. We had a really good team and I got to pitch as a freshman, and a fair amount  as a sophomore. I had great coaches who pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of doing.

After that, I was a walk-on at Mizzou and had a good experience there with good coaches and played with a lot of great players.

SD: At what point did strength training enter your mind as a potential career?

MS: Honestly, I always wanted to be an athletic trainer, but when I got to Mizzou, I found out real quick that I didn't have time to manage being both a Division I athlete and athletic trainer.

I got my degree in exercise science and nutrition. The summer before I graduated, I was able to get an internship with the sports medicine doctors at the outpatient rehabilitation center in Columbia. That carried into a part-time job during the fall, and about a year later, I was hired on full-time as an exercise physiologist. I ran the wellness program. Most of my responsibilities were working with clients who had some type of spine issue, either doing post-surgery rehabilitation or trying to prevent the need for surgery. I worked with a lot of great doctors and physical therapists.

I met a guy named Thomas Brundage, who had been a college athletic trainer. He had a high-level interest in strength and conditioning and kind of got me interested in that. We started up our own little makeshift program for high school athletes in Columbia.

SD: You left Columbia for a strength training job with the Anaheim Angels. How did that come about?

MS: I had some connections, and I think my baseball background helped a lot. It was a great experience and definitely made my career path clear that I really wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach.

SD: How did you land the grad assistant position at SIU?

MS: I wanted to get back to the Midwest, so I started to explore options about getting my master's. I didn't know anything about Southern Illinois. Someone was looking out for me, because I walked into the best thing that's really ever happened to me, being a part of this university.

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SD: Tell me about working under SIU’s strength coach at the time, Eric Klein.

MS: I think he's the most underrated strength and conditioning coach in the United States. He's a great coach, but he's a better person. We became really close friends. We have similar personalities. We used to joke that we could just look at each other and know what each other was thinking, and just go do whatever job needed to be done.

I think the biggest thing that I’ve tried to carry on from Coach Klein is how it’s definitely about the players. It's not about us as a strength and conditioning staff. He never tried to micromanage me. He pointed me in the right directions. I was willing to work hard, and read, and study. I was able to develop my own coaching philosophy. He's meant the world to me. I owe him everything.

SD: What sports were you involved with?

MS: I helped out with every sport. At that time, it was just a one-person show (Coach Klein) and the GA for all the sports here. When you look at the amount of winning that was taking place during that time, what’s most impressive is how Coach Klein had a major hand in supporting all of those winning programs.

SD: How closely did you work with Nick Hill when he was a player and you were a GA?

MS: He was playing basketball at Western Kentucky before he transferred here, and Coach (Jerry) Kill introduced me to him and said, “he's not going to play this year, so he's all yours.” I remember him being extremely hungry and willing to do whatever he could to give himself the best opportunity to be the number one quarterback.

As a grad assistant, Smith trained Nick Hill when he was a quarterback at SIU, and returned to become Hill's head strength coach in 2016.

SD: After you got your master's, you left college athletics for a period of time. What led you to the private sector?

MS: I worked for a company called Velocity Sports Performance. Their business model was to bring high-level performance training to cities all across the United States to train kids ages 8 to 18. We also trained some college kids, and I had a good following of St. Louis Blues professional guys that I trained during the summertime. I worked there for eight years and became the director of the facility.

SD: From 2011-15, you served as the head strength coach at SIUE. What made you decide to return to the college ranks?

MS: I always wanted to get back into college, but it had to be the right situation. Dr. (Brad) Hewitt, the athletic director at SIUE, gave me an opportunity and I cherished my time there, honestly. They treated me right. We built a brand-new weight room and had a lot of success with some great athletes and programs.

SD: When Coach Hill took the head coaching job at SIU in 2016, you were one of the first people he called.

MS: I had always wanted to go back to SIU, but you go through your career, you get married and have kids, and I thought my time had come and gone. I do believe if you just work hard, keep your head down and do the right things, then opportunities come along.

One day, I got a phone call from Coach Hill, and then from Coach (Kerri) Blaylock, asking if I would be interested in coming back. I was shocked, overwhelmed, but it was an easy choice for me.

SD: You're the only strength coach he’s had in his 11 seasons as a head coach, and it’s such an important role within the program. Talk about how your relationship with Coach Hill has evolved over time.

MS: Overall, he trusts me to get our guys where they need to get to. I would say, wow, that's pretty rare in today's world that the head coach gives you that much trust to put the plan together and organize it.

In this business, you gotta go earn it every single day. I feel like I am a person who’s gonna just leave it all out there. I love coaching and I try to show up every day with good energy. I think you earn the trust. I listen to Coach Hill and his vision and try to implement it into our training. He sees that. We might not agree on everything, but Coach Hill always listens and I think we work really well together.

SD: What’s something about Coach Hill that people don’t see from the outside?

MS: He is one of the most positive people I’ve ever met. He does so much behind the scenes that nobody knows about, and he doesn't want any attention or to try to take any credit for things that he does for our players, our coaches. He does things behind the scenes to support everybody and their families and it doesn't get recognized.

SD: Explain how you run the strength and conditioning program here at SIU.

MS: As an organization, everything is very detailed. When our players get in the building, they know exactly how we’re going to train that day.

The discipline is in the details of how we train. There's high expectation on every single thing that we do in our training sessions. We explain to make sure the guys know how we want it done from a technique standpoint, and why we're doing it as it relates to football. We want guys locked in.

SD: What’s your approach to motivation?

MS: I’m an effort and attitude-based coach. You're gonna give me a great attitude and great effort, and we’re never going to have any problems. If you come in, you're tired, or you’re not giving your best effort, then I'm gonna push you to get there.

I try to be very upfront and honest with our athletes. If I think they're doing a great job and they're improving, they're gonna know that. If they’re not improving the way that I feel they're capable of doing, then we got to get to the bottom of that.

SD: You have a reputation as a no-nonsense coach.

MS: I’m not going to sugar-coat anything, and sometimes the players or maybe even the coaches don't like what I have to say. I believe in facts, and a lot of times everybody sees (a problem), and we figure out a way how we're gonna get it fixed and resolved and move forward.

SD: You attend the staff meetings where the coaches all seem to have tremendous respect for your opinion.

MS: It’s important to build a relationship with the position coaches. I lean on them to see what their eyes are telling them during practice. I watch practice every day. I watch film. It allows me to have open, honest conversations with the assistant coaches on how I can help their athletes become better.

SD: How do you tailor your workout plans to specific positions and body types?

MS: We train by position, but we also train by the number of years you've been in our program. You're not doing the same program all four years. Each year, you start a new annual program. That develops players.

Take someone like Jeremy Chinn, and how he grew and developed within the program each year over four years. The transfer portal is a little bit different. You get guys from different programs, some of them may have injuries, and then you put them in with our guys who have been working with us on a daily basis for a few years. We're gonna meet guys where they’re at and put them on programs that best fit them.

SD: Speaking of Chinn, you've trained five players who went on to play in the NFL. How gratifying is it to see guys advance into a professional career?

MS: As a coach, you're just happy for them. It's not about me at all. The athletes put the work in to get to that level. They come in here and utilize every resource that our department has, whether that’s the strength and conditioning staff, sports medicine staff, academics, the coaches. All those guys are similar in their attitude, just trusting the process, and also just being good human beings. It’s rewarding to see those guys have the opportunity to go to the next level, but at the end of the day, those are the people that made the sacrifices.

And it’s about more than just the guys who end up making it to the league. I tell the scouts when they come in here, I'll put my paycheck on these guys. I vouch for them being good humans, and if they don’t make it, it'll be because they're not a good enough football player.

SD: Time and again, players will come back to campus and talk about what a difference you made in their lives. How does that make you feel?

MS: It feels good, but I work for the program. I work for everybody past, present and future Saluki. It is about trying to make SIU right now the best that it can be and represent every person that's been a part of SIU. That's who I work for every day. I work for the program and every coach who is here, and every athlete that puts on a uniform here. You want to make them proud to be a product of SIU.

SD: You treat walk-ons exactly the same way as the guy who might be a pro prospect. Why is that important?

MS: I'm going to treat everybody equally, and that's the only way that, as a team, you can get to the highest level. Everybody has to have the same opportunity.

When I was a walk-on at Mizzou, one of the things that irritated me was that I noticed walk-ons weren’t held as accountable as scholarship players. I was a hard worker at the time, but maybe my attitude wasn't right or my effort wasn't where it needed to be.

As far as that walk-on, if I don't push them and hold them accountable to push the needle forward, then two years from now, they might not be getting that scholarship. If you're a part of this team, this organization, there's no job too small for anybody. Everybody's got to go out and put the same amount of work into it.

SD: You lead a small, hard-working staff. What does a typical day look like during football season?

MS: We're in the building around 5 o'clock every day. The weight room opens up. The guys have the opportunity to use our fueling station, and so we make sure that's organized and set up. We work with the sports medicine staff to try to help make their lives a little bit easier in any way that we can. We weigh guys in, go to meetings, organize warm-ups. We help organize the meals. From about 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., it is nothing but straight football — practice, lifting weights, cool downs and any post-practice maintenance type things, like making sure guys are getting in the cool tubs if they need to.

I will say, the last two years since we moved practice to the mornings have been a huge benefit for me and my family. I've been able to be at more of my boys’ sporting events, and that's huge.

SD: Tell me more about your family and how sports plays a big part in your lives.

MS: My wife, Adie, she's our rock. Being back here at SIU, our kids can see the kind of athlete (Saluki Softball) she was and how special the southern Illinois community is.

We live in Carterville and have three boys. Meade (Jr.) is gonna be a senior in high school. He just started playing golf when he was a freshman but tied for second in the conference last year. He’s learning the ups and downs of being an athlete. Cooper will be a sophomore and he plays soccer, basketball and baseball. He’s a good leader and a good teammate, and that's all you can ask for as a parent. Payne will be in 5th grade and he gets beat up on every day at home, but he's a good kid, acts like he's 16, and he's a good little athlete as well.

SD: What are your hobbies or interests outside of work?

MS: Honestly, I'm just a homebody. I like hanging out at home. I like cooking. If I have any free time, I like the sport of golf and play with some of the coaches. I just like going and practicing. It’s just a little quiet time for my brain to unwind.

I'm always thinking about our athletes, what can we be doing better, or where we need to get to. I like walking when I play, so it just lets me think about work a little bit while also playing golf. I'm a pretty simple person.