Smith Takes Another Quick Step, This Time into Ohio State Hall of Fame – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Buckeyes’ only first-team All-American takes her spot among all-time greats
By Tim Stried, Ohio State Athletics Communications
COLUMBUS, Ohio On the softball field, Anna Smith was never one to take her time. Whether that was earning a starting spot as a freshman, or bursting from the batter’s box after the lefty slapper dropped a bunt down the third-base line, or sprinting to second for another stolen base, or snagging a hard-hit fly ball in the gap.
So it should come as no surprise that only five years after her playing days ended, the softball program’s only first-team All-American had her named called this week for enshrinement in the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame. Considering the selection committee has a five-year waiting period before a former Buckeye can become eligible for the Hall of Fame, Smith is in essence a rare “first-ballot” selection.
Anna, or Mrs. Ferrara, as the students at Corona High School in Corona, Calif. where she is a guidance counselor, call her, earned All-Big Ten honors all four years she wore the Scarlet and Gray, one of only four Buckeyes in the history of the program to do so. In a career that began in 1999 and ended in 2002, she set eight OSU records and was named the Ohio State Female Athlete of the Year as a senior.
A native of Diamond Bar, Calif., Smith was one of the first prized recruits of Ohio State head coach Linda Kalafatis, who took the helm in Columbus in 1997. And as the new millennium got underway, a new era in Buckeye softball was about to begin. Smith and a host of talented teammates posted a 46-18 record in 2001 and then a school-record 55-14 season in 2002, which included the Buckeyes’ first of what would become four trips to the NCAA tournament this decade.
“The Hall of Fame honor is about Anna’s career,” Kalafatis said. “But to top off her career the way she did in 2002 when she hit over .500 and because our first first-team All-American was incredible. And it wasn’t just about her numbers and her stats, but it was also about her leadership and the way she represented her team and Ohio State.”
During her career, Smith set Ohio State career records for hits (243), runs scored (166) and stolen bases (108) and single-season records for batting average (.507), hits (105), runs (68), stolen bases (40) and triples (8).
Did Smith ever think she would be the one to re-write the Ohio State record book?
“Never,” Smith said Friday from her home in Southern California. “I never really thought about that. After my freshman season I thought maybe I could reach the stolen base record, but that was it. I never had a clue I would get all those records.”
With her name at the top of so many lists in the record book and with the kind of season the Buckeyes had in 2002, it was only a matter of time before Smith joined three other softball Buckeyes in the Hall of Fame, which include Shauna Bowman (1988-91), Krinon Clark (1991-94) and women’s sports pioneer Alice Hohlmayer.
“We are just so excited about Anna’s entrance into the Hall of Fame,” Kalafatis said. “In addition to our softball Buckeyes in the Hall, when you think about the best athletes all-time at Ohio State, you think about Jesse Owens and Jack Nicklaus and Archie Griffin, and now Anna is a part of that.”
But before Smith could begin her Hall of Fame career, she first had to become a Buckeye. She said her college choice came down to UCLA or Ohio State, and it was not an easy one considering her father is a UCLA graduate.
“The summer before my senior year we made the trip to Ohio State and just loved the environment,” Smith said. “And then we went to a football game and saw the campus again and I knew. I felt really comfortable with the coaches and loved the sense of community and being in a college town. Growing up in Southern California, everyone wants to go to UCLA, but when I visited Ohio State, it felt right. Sure it was a little scary leaving home and going all the way to Ohio, but it was a great decision.”
The Ohio State softball roster had always been sprinkled with California natives, but Smith said, “After my class there were a lot more.” In fact, on the Buckeyes’ 2007 Big Ten champion squad, there were eight California natives, including Ohio State’s current center-fielder from Smith’s former travel team, Gordon’s Panthers, Liz Caputo.
Smith graduated with a degree in Human Ecology from Ohio State in 2002 and played with the U.S. National Team at the Canada Cup that summer. Shoulder surgery soon after that event ended her playing career, however, but it was an experience she will never forget.
“Division I college softball is a different level from high school or travel ball, but playing with the National Team was just a completely different level,” Smith said. “And there were quite a few of my former teammates from Gordon’s Panthers on the National Team so it was nice to get back on the same team with them.”
In 2004, Smith married her high school boyfriend, Franco Ferrara, and earned her master’s degree in educational counseling from University of La Verne in Southern California. For two seasons she was the graduate assistant softball coach at La Verne, a traditional power at the NCAA Div. III level, and served as head coach last season and led the team to a 24-16 record and a 17-7 mark in the conference, good for a runner-up finish.
It was a part-time coaching position, however, and the time commitment between that and her full-time position at Corona High School became too difficult, so Smith has decided not to coach at La Verne next season.
“I really enjoyed coaching,” Smith said. “It was a lot of fun. I wish it had been a full-time position so I could commit, but it wasn’t and it was too hard to juggle going back and forth from school to the park where we practiced and played.”
Could she ever see herself getting back into coaching?
“Right now I’m focused on counseling, but I don’t think I could stay away from softball forever,” Smith said.
And now as a member of the Ohio State Hall of Fame, that is a guarantee.
### GO BUCKS! ###
Note: Anna (Smith) Ferrara will enter the Hall of Fame in ceremonies during the weekend of Sept. 7-9. She will be announced on the field during halftime of the Ohio State vs. Akron football game in Ohio Stadium Sept. 8.
