Tanner Rattlers boys head soccer coach Matt Smith has come a long way in his now eight years at the helm. Coming from a football background, including playing at Miles College after graduating from Tanner in 2007, admittedly, Smith didn’t know anything about the game when he first became Tanner’s head soccer coach in 2013.

Since that time, though, he has led his team to three Elite 8 appearances and one Final Four, and the Rattlers have been crowned section champions four times.

“That first year was kind of a blur. That was the year I lost my mom, and I got thrown into the soccer world,” Smith said. “I didn’t know anything.”

But after contacting several coaches, learning from his players, watching videos, reading books and attending several coaching clinics over the years, Smith knows he wouldn’t be where he is without them.

“I was trying to educate myself as much as possible to try and get my team in the best possible postion to win,” he said. “They were all very instrumental in me falling in love with the sport.”

That love for soccer grows every year for Smith, and now he can’t imagine coaching anything or anywhere else.

“People always ask me why I don’t coach football here as a 6-6, 400-pound former offensive lineman. If I had to choose between football and soccer, I choose soccer because of the kids,” Smith said. “I feel closer with the team because of the different backgrounds that we come from and how much time and effort we have to put in to understand each other.”

Although he coaches a predominantly Hispanic team, Smith admits his Spanish still isn’t up to par but says being with his team and around their culture day in and day out has made him a better coach and better person in the “melting pot” that is the Tanner community.

“Everybody gets along with everybody,” he said. “It doesn’t matter your race, sex, religion — we’re all together. Our principal here, Deborah Kenyon, and our athletic director, William Casey Pirtle, have done a tremendous job of creating that environment and creating that open-door policy.”

It’s a policy he’s also adopted for his team.”Every one of my soccer players knows my door is always open and they can come talk to me about anything,” said Smith, who also

works as an instructional assistant at Tanner in special education.

This year, the Rattlers went 19-5-1 on the pitch and lost in the second round of the playoffs to Collinsville. While they didn’t get to where they wanted, it was viewed as a successful season in large part due to the heavily leaned on senior leadership of Kevin Calderon, Frankie Vicente, Nehmeias Vicente, Jorge Leon Tovar, Rodrigo Lagunas and Alex Blanco and the play of junior Manuel Felipe and eighth grader Randy Cortez.

“It was a good season to me,” Cortez said. “It was just my second year playing.”Despite being relatively new to varsity soccer, Cortez finds himself third all-time in the Alabama record books for consecutive hat-tricks with five and second all-time in Tanner High School history with 48 goals on the season.

Felipe, who had 34 goals and 16 assists in his junior season, will be taking a leadership role next season as a senior. “Going into this summer, I could already see Manuel changing hats and moving into that leadership role,” Smith said. “He and goalkeeper Emmanuel Gonzalez will have all the weight on their shoulders next season as the only two seniors. We’re going to go as far as those two carry us.”

Felipe is ready for that challenge.

“I’m going to practice more, and as a team, (we’ll) talk more,” Felipe said. “We’ll have to practice together and just get in the game.”

As for what they hope to accomplish next year as a team, collectively, the answer was pretty straighforward: Win a state championship.

“Every year, we go into the season with a list of goals. This year, we were able to check off two of the four with winning the county and making the playoffs,” Smith said. “We didn’t win the area, which is one of our goals, but utlimately, we want to compete for state championships.”