University of Minnesota Athletics
Smith Brings Extra Energy to Gopher Gymnastics
2/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
By Jennie Clark
Athletic Communications Assistant
For someone attending a University of Minnesota men's gymnastics meet for the first time, the excitement and energy throughout the event might be a bit surprising.
A great deal of this excitement obviously comes from the gymnasts and the amazing skills they put on display each week. But the Gophers have more than a little help from their public address announcer Sam Smith.
That's by design. When head coach Mike Burns took over the program in 2005, one of his goals was to bring more fan involvement, more animation and more pizzazz to Gopher home meets. Enter Smith, who had been doing some judging and was looking to be more involved in the sport and the Minnesota program.
After Smith competed at and graduated from Michigan State, he returned to his home state of Minnesota and quickly hooked up with head coach Mike Burns.
"I knew Mike when he was coaching at Michigan and I was at Michigan State," Smith said. "When he went to Minnesota he wanted to transform the program's energy by making it more fun for the crowd. Gymnastics can be pretty tough to follow if you're not familiar with the sport."
It's very clear Smith has followed through on Burns' goal of making Gopher men's gymnastics meets more fan friendly.
"Sam brings such an amazing energy behind the microphone," Burns said. "He's out there in the crowd doing trivia questions. He's getting the crowd involved with our 'Stuck Dismount' chant. He is really creating a super home atmosphere for our team. That's really the key to having a great home meet."
Smith has formal public address announcing experience before taking over that role for the Gophers. But he's no stranger to speaking in front of people. As a corporate trainer, Smith spends plenty of time talking to people in workshops, etc.
"I'm a speaker by profession," Smith said. "But I had never done any announcing before."
That lack of formal training may have led to some of the more unorthodox ways Smith tries to get the crowd involved. Smith will run up and down the length of the Sports Pavilion to lead the wave. He will climb up on the scorer's table to get the crowd excited when the Gophers are on the vault. Smith goes into the crowd to ask trivia questions and he is frequently heard leading the Gophers' "Stuck Dismount" chant.
Gymnastics judges aren't exactly a dime a dozen and losing one isn't always the best for the sport. But Burns said the trade of having Smith as the Gophers' public address has paid off for his program.
"I gave him a call to see if he would be interested in doing it, and he said absolutely," Burns said. "He used to be a judge for some of our meets. So we kind of lost a judge, but we gained a great PA announcer."
Minnesota has really created a home advantage through the atmosphere Smith and Burns have brought to the events.
"We want to create more of a fan-friendly type of atmosphere" Burns said. "When you're sitting in the bleachers for two hours the bleachers get a little hard. You want to be a part of the action. Sam does that. He brings the crowd into the competition and helps make it an event for them as well."
Fans have just one more opportunity this year to see Smith's antics and see the Gophers' incredible gymnastics skills. Minnesota hosts Iowa and Illinois-Chicago March 13 at the Sports Pavillion in the final home meet of the season.
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