Jeff Fisher had no intentions on holding back his sentiments about junior center-back Sean Smith.
“To be honest, Smith is one of the best players to come through our program, and he’s only a junior,” the Robbinsville High boys’ soccer coach said. “He’s extremely talented.”
Part of that comes from natural ability, part comes from hard work, and part comes from getting some hard-core competition as a youngster.
At age 11, Smith’s Allentown-based club team, the Upper Freehold/Allentown Fire, traveled to England to play the academy teams for such Premier League franchises as Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers. It was the kind of training ground that’s tough to get in America.
“The competition is insane,” said Smith, who was actually playing up a year with the 2004 team. “Soccer is everything over there, it’s ridiculous. They have all these different facilities where they spend millions of dollars on their grass fields, they have these insane complexes.
“Soccer is much bigger over there than in America, which is unfortunate. But it was a great experience to see what’s outside of America and the competition that lies ahead of me.”
It also enabled Smith to hone his game at a young age.
“It definitely helped me a lot because competition is so great and the speed of play is so much faster,” said Smith, who praised Fire coaches Jimmy Hines and Dan Donigan for his progress.
“It kind of helped me adapt to how quick I am when I play the ball and how many steps ahead I have to think before I play the ball.”
In essence, it formulated a player who has been an integral part of the Ravens defense the last two years; and also their offense this year as Smith was second on the team with nine goals. Most of his scores came on headballs off of corner kicks and free kicks from Ryan Jacobs. The two have formed a chemistry over the past two seasons, and the fact Smith is 6-3 helps.
“I’ve honestly been really blessed to have such a great set piece taker,” Smith said. “Ryan really does all the work. I’m there, I take my chances when I get them. We have a couple plays and he puts the ball in the right spot for me and I just clean it up for him.”
He has a pretty good batting average when doing so.
“He might get one or two chances in a game and he makes the most of them,” Fisher said. “It’s incredible to score nine goals as a center back. And we only played 16 games (finishing 8-7-1).”
But defending is Smith’s main responsibility and he takes great pride in it after playing in the back for most of his life. He started with the Fire, moved to PDA for two years and now plays for Match Fit, which won the State Cup this year and reached the ECNL semifinals before losing. It was another chance at high level play for Sean.
“That was a fantastic experience for me playing with all the great kids from all over the state,” he said.
During his freshman year at Robbinsville, Smith played midfield during an injury-shortened season. Since the Ravens were loaded in the back and Sean’s body was still developing, he was moved up for one year, but moved back to his natural spot as a sophomore and promptly earned second-team All-Colonial Valley Conference last year and first-team honors on the coaches team this season.
The reasons for the recognition are seemingly infinite once Fisher starts listing them.
“He’s big, he’s strong, he’s really good on the ball with both feet… he’s just really good,” the veteran coach said. “It’s easy to talk about all of his attributes because he’s just such a well rounded player.
“When we need him to score a goal he scores a goal. When we need him to win headballs in our defensive box he wins headballs. This year he grew into being a leader, I’m really expecting big things from him as a senior. He’s pretty much taking over the reins of this team. Especially because we bring a lot of guys back. We played a lot of sophomores this year and some juniors.”
Smith’s size and his ability on the ball are big pluses in shutting down opposing players. He is quick to point out the help he gets from fellow center-back Justin Parisi, who relieves some of the pressure, and outside backs Nolan O’Grady and Will Schreyer.
And while he does have their assistance, Smith relishes 1-v-1 confrontations against a talented offensive player.
“I didn’t get many of those this year, I had really good outside backs who did all the dirty work,” he said. “But I like the one-v-ones a lot.”
What he doesn’t like is getting beat in those situations. Fisher has rarely seen anyone get by him with the ball. On a rare occasion when it happened, he saw a player take it personally
“One time against Lawrence a guy got by him,” the coach said. “I could just see on his face, the frustration and anger, like ‘It’s not gonna happen again.’ He likes to grind it out and play physical. He appreciates that aspect of the game. He’s a strong kid.”
Not surprisingly, the moment is seared in his brain.
“I remember that instance and it definitely resonates with me,” Smith said. “The kid scored on that play and we lost that game. I put the blame on myself. I let down my teammates.
“When I get beat one vs. one like that it motivates me that I gotta work harder. It can’t happen again. I’m letting my teammates down and that’s something I don’t want to happen. That kid had the edge on me and the next time I face him I want to make sure it’s not gonna happen again.”
What definitely won’t happen again—for this year, at least—is Smith returning to the Ravens basketball team. He played two years with older brother Ryan (now graduated), but is taking the winter off to focus on soccer. Spring track is in the mix, however, as Sean wants to run distance to work on his endurance for the Beautiful Game.
Smith’s goal is to play in college and has worked as hard on his grades as he does on his game. He tries to attend an after-school study hall held for athletes each day after school “to figure out what I need to do for my classes. It really helps me.”
He practices from 2:30 to 5, does his homework as quickly as possible then heads out for club practice at night.
“Balancing school and sports gets really tough,” he said. “Sports definitely helps with my time management skills. You focus on schoolwork, then focus on sports.”
That philosophy has produced a 4.1 weighted grade point average, and a 3.9 unweighted. Smith is also in an RHS environmental club, which helps keep the town looking good.
One thing is certain—if he cleans up Robbinsville the way he cleans up things in the back for the Ravens, the local environment is in pretty good shape.
Robbinsville High School junior Sean Smith is pursued by a player from Nottingham High School.,
