The Mary Baldwin University athletic department proudly announces the addition of Nate D. Smith as the new head coach of the Fighting Squirrels men's basketball program.
Smith, a graduate of Sacramento State University with a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology/Physical Education (2014), joins MBU after four seasons as an assistant/associate head coach at Oberlin College in Cleveland, OH.  

"We're very excited about the addition of Nate Smith to the MBU staff," said Director of Athletics Tom Byrnes.  "He's demonstrated success at his previous coaching jobs over the past decade, and I believe he'll bring the necessary attributes to the players in our program.  I think he's a winner from start to finish."

At Oberlin, he helped orchestrate a turnaround from a 6-19 team to one that posted a winning record three-straight years for the first time in team history.  As the Offensive Coordinator, he lifted Oberlin's attack to its highest levels in six years and helped build a stronger rebounding corps, improving the team's rebounding margin by nearly nine boards per game.

Prior to his stint at Oberlin, Smith served as an assistant coach at his alma mater for five years, helping Sacramento State win more Big Sky Tournament games in five seasons than the program won in 18 previous seasons combined.  Like his time at Oberlin, he helped recruit several of the best players in Sacramento State's NCAA Division I history.  

He was also Sacramento State's Director of Basketball Operations for four seasons and Video Coordinator for two years before being promoted to assistant coach.

"I would like to thank Tom Byrnes, Christy Shelton, and the rest of the search committee for this tremendous opportunity" Smith said. "I am very excited to get to campus and start building this program which already has such a rich history of success. I cannot wait to coach the team as we look to build an USA South championship caliber program here in Staunton."

At MBU, Smith inherits a program that has advanced to the conference playoffs four-straight seasons, including winning the 2024 USA South Conference regular season and post-season championship, which earned a bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.  It was the first USA South Conference crown for any MBU team since the Fighting Squirrels joined the conference in 2009.

In 2025-26, The Fighting Squirrels posted an 11-14 overall record, including a quarterfinal round loss at Southern Virginia in the USA South Conference playoffs.  The Fighting Squirrels graduated only two players from the 2025-26 season and are poised to return to the upper echelon of the conference this season.