Longtime Cape Central athletics supporter remembered for passion, school spirit

Dale "Smitty" Smith sat in the press box for Cape Central Junior High football games and served as the PA announcer.

He did the job just fine until he got caught up in the game and urged the Tiger faithful in the stands below to cheer after a good Central play.

"Of course the opposing team would get so upset so I'd have to go up and say, 'Hey, Smitty, you can't lead us in cheers. You're the announcer,'" former Central baseball coach and current junior high athletics director Terry Kitchen said with a laugh. "I remember that most of all."

It was just one way that Smith, who died Monday at age 67 after complications from pneumonia, showed his true colors as one of the Tigers' top supporters.

His fandom was obvious to anyone involved with Central athletics.

"He was, in my opinion, exactly what you would want any teacher, administrator, to be, with a school. He bled orange," Central softball coach Amy Blattel said. "Terry Kitchen always said, 'You've got to bleed orange.' Smitty bled orange.

"He was the ultimate fan and it didn't matter what sporting event it was. It could've been golf all the way through to football. He would show up and support the kids and cheer them on, and you would always hear him walking down the hallways, at practices, saying, 'We are CT.' When you talk about school spirit, Smitty is what comes to mind as the epitome of school spirit."

Smith spent more than 15 years as a teacher's assistant at Central, which was how he and Blattel met. He joined her during her adapted physical education class her first year in the school district.

"Our friendship grew from that point on. He and I worked so well together," Blattel said. "He loved, loved, loved the kids. He would do anything in the world for them. We would train them for the Special Olympics, and when we went to our first Special Olympics with our high school athletes, I can't explain how proud he was of our kids when they won a gold medal. He just took that very personally and was so excited about it."

He ventured to as many Central sporting events as possible, and according to Kitchen, he did "anything he could for you."

In addition to his PA duties, he helped escort referees out to the field or court and eventually found a spot in the dugout to keep score for the softball games.

He'd even come, glove in hand, to practices and throw with the players. Eventually he joined the softball team on the bus to keep score for away games. If Blattel and her assistants were discussing the outcome of the game on the ride back and what the team needed to work on, Smith was included in those conversations.

"The softball team absolutely loved the fact the fact that he would travel with us," Blattel said. "They thought that it was a really big deal to have someone who was that committed to watching them play and watching them grow. They loved it. They would do special cheers on the buses for him after we won a game, and he just smiled from ear to ear. And he eventually got into some of those cheers."

Kitchen appreciated Smith's support even when games didn't go quite as well.

"I think he liked that relationship, you know, 'I'm with you guys at all times, in the good times, in the bad times, but I'm going to always be with you,' and that was Smitty," Kitchen said.

Smith's close friend, Kevin Crawford, who first met Smith in the late '90s when the two both served as assistant coaches for a little league baseball team, also witnessed the love and pride he had for Tiger athletes. He was overwhelmed by the heartwarming stories from former athletes and community members that poured out in the days following his death.

"He was just so special to talk to," Crawford said. "He was just a great, positive, fun-loving guy that brought good things out [in people]."

A visitation for Smith is scheduled from 4-8 p.m. Monday at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield, Missouri, and will include full military honors. Smith served in the Navy for four years in the 1970s.

"I think the most important thing about Smitty is I don't think he understood the impact he had not only on the kids he supported but on the fellow coaching staff and with the teachers that he worked with," Blattel said. "He impacted a lot of people in a positive way. He is going to be greatly missed."