Doug Smith will always be an angel to the girls he coached in his 28 years at St. Joseph's Academy. 

Smith grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota and was a hell of a player at Northern State University, winning the conference championships in singles and doubles. He and Craig Sandvig knew each other from the tournament circuit back home. When Sandvig tracked him down at the US Open and asked if he wanted to come to St. Louis and help build a junior program, Smith said yes. That was 1977. Within two years they had one of the strongest junior programs in the area. They ran Sunset Tennis Center in Fenton together for 37 years. 

For 17 of those, Smith also served as circuit coordinator for the Missouri Valley Section of the USTA, the first person to hold that role. He was busy. Coaching high school tennis was the last thing on his mind. 

Then out of the blue he ran into Kathy Boles at Sunset. She was retiring after winning four straight state titles at St. Joseph's Academy and wanted to know if he was interested. It was right up his alley. 

Smith took over in 1998 and won a state championship his first year. Then another. Then five straight. Thirteen titles in 28 years. Nobody in Missouri has ever done that. His first year, a freshman named Kiki Stastny won the state singles title. She won it the next three years too, the only four-time singles champion in Missouri history. She had a Hall of Fame hockey star for a father, and learned composure from Doug. 

He put his heart into coaching, but never his ego. Twelve weeks wasn't enough time to rebuild anyone's game, and he wasn't trying to. He built lineups, managed doubles combinations, and kept things calm. "He was always the voice of calm and reason," said Margaret Junker, who trained at Sunset, played for Smith, and went on to coach at Ladue for a decade. 

Doug retired in 2025. The courts at St. Joseph's were named in his honor. Once an Angel, always an Angel. 

(2016)