Terry Smith finds one of his many niches on Penn State's coaching staff

Terry Smith won 101 games and led Gateway High School to four WPIAL championship games while serving for more than a decade as football coach and athletic director at his alma mater.

He holds a coveted berth in the WPIAL Hall of Fame.

On Wednesday, he spoke of a high school locker room as “so pure, so genuine.”

But he has moved on from the Friday night sidelines and has been at Penn State since 2014. He serves his college alma mater, where he started at wide receiver for three years, as assistant head coach/cornerbacks and defensive recruiting coordinator.

He has been a success on both levels — he also played in three pro leagues — and enjoys the different challenges coaching high school and college players creates.

While keeping his cell phone within arm’s length — who knows when a recruit might call? — he spoke Wednesday of those differences.

“Friday nights, obviously, it’s a different feel,” said Smith, who left for Temple in 2013 after Gateway was hit with budget cuts. “When you’re a high school coach, that community feel of the community around you, where you grew up and the kids and the families are all right there, yeah, I miss that. It’s a great family feeling.”

It also is unique.

“The majority of your team in high school isn’t going to go play college football,” he said, although Smith sent dozens of Gateway graduates to the next level.

“The majority of those guys are playing because their buddy’s playing, the community’s strong, it supports them — for a various amount of reasons.

“When you come to college, they’re here to play football. They’re going to go to school and be a student-athlete, but their main purpose is to come play football, even the walk-ons. You’re enticed or recruited to come here, and so their full commitment is football. In high school, it’s just a little bit different.

“Every level, in my opinion, in the locker room, you lose slightly a little bit. You go from high school where that locker room is so pure, so genuine. There’s no money involved in it. They’re doing it because they love it.

“You go up to college, and it’s pure to a sense but those guys have their eyes on the NFL. The end point is ‘I got to get to the NFL.’

“And you get to the NFL, ‘I have to protect my family. I have to play for my family.’ So a bunch of individuals in that locker room. Every level, we lose a little bit of that team camaraderie, and in high school it’s at its purest.”

That said, Smith has found his niche in college football, where he has sent 10 of his players onto the riches of the NFL.

He also knows Penn State fans embrace the Nittany Lions similar to how a smaller community embraces its high school team.

“Penn State football, we’re a major factor in our community. We know that,” he said. “We take on that responsibility.

“Once we get back to being able to be on campus and football can move forward (when the covid-19 outbreak subsides), we’re looking to contribute in the community where we can.

“There are two things that bring communities together, and it’s tragedy and it’s sports. For our community, Penn State is that bond.

“We’re going to try to receive all the love and give all the love and try to get our community back to thriving and happiness and get Happy Valley back to happy.”