Lorelee Smith Inducted Into Mishawaka High School Hall of Fame

MISHAWAKA, Ind. — Lewis University Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Lorelee Smith was inducted into the Mishawaka High School Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

“My dad, sister and brother are all (also) in,” Smith said of earning the induction to her high school’s Hall of Fame. “So it’s a family thing, we all want to be in it. My dad coached at the high school, obviously we were a big athletic family. When we go back, we have that crazy Mishawaka pride, so it’s pretty cool.”

Smith played tennis and volleyball at Mishawaka, led the volleyball team to three straight State Finals appearances and earned Northern Indiana Conference First Team honors her sophomore through senior years, being named to the All-State team in her junior and senior seasons. In tennis, she was on the No. 1 doubles team and was named to the NIC First Team as a senior.

Smith then attended the University of North Carolina Asheville, where she continued to excel as a setter for the volleyball team and in the classroom. She earned All-Conference honors all four years in college, was All-Region twice, and earned an Academic All-American honor her senior year before graduating with her bachelor’s degree in marketing. Smith is a member of the UNC Asheville Hall of Fame as well.

“When I went to Asheville, the senior (setter Danielle [Meyer] Harrison) graduated, so the door was open, and she stuck around for a year (as a coach),” Smith said. “When she left, the setter for the national team became our assistant coach. So I had these two amazing mentors, I got really lucky to have these great coaches to help me in the areas I needed it most.”

In her time at UNC Asheville, Smith set the all-time career assist record for the school and Big South Conference with 5,904, both of which still stand today.

After graduating college, Smith played professional beach volleyball in the EVP, MPVA, and AVP. She then worked as an assistant coach at the University of Central Missouri under Peggy Martin, the winningest head coach in NCAA-II history, and earned her master’s degree in marketing in management from Central Missouri during that time.

“It’s not like she spells out how high her standards are, but you know when you’re around her, this is the level and you don’t go below it,” Smith said about learning from Martin. “She could be intimidating because she’s just so good,…