Charmin Smith’s return brings experience and stability to ‘Cal family’
The new head coach will look to instill a new level of competitiveness and discipline to the program.
When Charmin Smith came home from Sweden in 2003, her doctor told her she had to stop playing basketball. Earlier that year, Smith had left her program at UCLA for an opportunity overseas. But by this time, her knee was the size of her head. And if she wanted to walk when she was 40 years old, her doctor said, she would have to give up basketball.
Fortunately, there were other options. After all, the program Smith had left was for her second master’s degree. And with her experience and knowledge of the game, coaching was another possibility. But that, she knew, was not what she wanted.
“I did not want to coach,” Smith says.
Sixteen years later, Smith has a slightly different view on coaching. In her first-ever head coaching role, Smith will take on a new challenge as the 10th head coach in UC Berkeley women’s basketball history.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Smith’s basketball journey began like any other younger sibling — through her older brother. While she didn’t play the game with all girls until she was 9 years old, she would end up competing with some of the city’s best:
“[Former WNBA player] Kristin Folkl was on that team. Mollie Peirick, who played at Notre Dame,” Smith says of her AAU team. “We had a really good team [that] stuck together for a long time and ended up with lots of us having Division I scholarships to major universities.”
But despite the offers, the thought of playing in the WNBA never crossed Smith’s mind. It didn’t even exist. So as much as she loved the game, Smith saw basketball just as a means to get the best education possible.
At Stanford, she got exactly that: the self-described nerd enrolled in a five-year program to pursue her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering.
But the summer after her junior year, news about an upcoming WNBA came around. The league was set to launch the next year in 1997.
“Oh my goodness, there’s going to be a professional league?” Smith recalls thinking. “I can play and make money doing this? I don’t have to go overseas?”
Smith loaded up her senior year with classes to finish her five-year program a year early and take her shot at the league as soon as possible. After graduating in 1997, Smith joined the Portland Power of the American Basketball League. Two years later, she signed with the Minnesota Lynx.
“You should really consider coaching”
But Smith’s WNBA career was short-lived: just 81 games over four seasons. After short stints at UCLA and in Sweden, she returned to her doctor’s daunting message. Smith decided to retire and did the next logical thing: look for a job in engineering.
“I had an interview for a great project management position,” Smith says. “During that interview, I was dizzy, nauseous, shaking. I just didn’t want to be there. This just wasn’t the path for me.”
With basketball no longer an option and engineering not a passion, Smith returned to Stanford to help run basketball camps while figuring out her next step. Then came the nudge from her former coach, Stanford legend Tara VanDerveer: “You should really consider coaching.”
Smith was reluctant, but with an assistant coaching position available at Boston College and an endorsement from the Hall-of-Fame coach, she gave it a try — and loved it. It helped that the Eagles won the 2004 Big East tournament, beating Diana Taurasi’s UConn team along the way.
“It felt pretty magical at that point,” Smith says of the memorable win.
After a season at Boston College, Smith returned to Stanford as an assistant under VanDerveer before joining Cal in 2007. The young coach had become good friends with Golden Bears assistant coach Lindsay Gottlieb, and the two often talked about their respective programs. Smith was intrigued by how things were done at Cal. It didn’t matter that she was joining a rival team.
“You know, everyone had a problem with it but me,” Smith says. “… I really felt like, if I’m gonna be a great coach in this profession, I need to know more than just the Stanford way to do things.”
It was for that same reason that Smith left Cal for the New York Liberty this April: “I had really maxed out in terms of what I could do as an assistant for Cal and in terms of my fulfillment and my growth,” Smith says. “I knew that it was time for me to find something else.”
Return to Cal family
But on June 14, before a game against the Las Vegas Aces, Smith received a text message. Gottlieb, by then Cal’s head coach since 2011, had left the program to become an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers two days earlier. Cal wanted to interview Smith for the job.
When she received the offer after the interview, the decision was a no-brainer.
“I loved every minute of my time with the Liberty, and it’s not like I was ready to leave that,” Smith says. “… But when you offer me an opportunity to be back with my Cal family and to be a head coach where it’s my program and to take that challenge on? Talk about growth. This is something I’ve never experienced before, and I didn’t see it as something I could turn down without having a ton of regret and always wondering, ‘What if?’”
“This is literally the best thing that could’ve possibly happened,” Cal senior C.J. West says.
The departures of Smith and Gottlieb had left the players concerned about their future. Smith’s return brought them stability and familiarity.
And while her extensive coaching resume could be intimidating, Smith has instead used her experiences to better relate to her players.
In a recent meeting where West was discussing her goals with Smith, “[Charmin] really wanted me to talk about not only basketball goals, but also personal goals,” West says. “One of those I told her was stress management, and we just had a good conversation about managing stress. She was telling me about her time at Stanford, and the fact that she knows exactly what we’re going through.”
“That’s another reason she’s a great person to have in your corner,” West adds. “She has so much experience, and she knows exactly what you’re going through.”
And it’s not just her experience as a former player that allows Smith to connect with her players.
“When we go out as a team, we’re girls, so we’re gonna talk about clothes,” Cal senior Jaelyn Brown says. “And Charmin has a great sense of style, so she jumps in on those conversations.”
Brown recalls one game night, when Smith was still an assistant: “She sent me a picture of her closet, and she said, ‘Here are the options, the pants, the shoes. Just pick one. Put my outfit together,’” Brown says. “It was for a game, but you kind of take a step back and relate to her on a different level.”
When asked about her transition, Smith jokes about the fact that she hasn’t even called a time out or a play yet. But her goals are clear: to instill a certain type of competitiveness and discipline that will be noticeable whenever Cal plays.
The student-athletes expect that those characteristics will help the Charmin Smith-era of Cal women’s basketball become successful. But it’s off the court where Smith hopes those traits will make their greatest impact:
“My ultimate goal is to develop young women who are ready for life after Cal in all aspects,” Smith says. “I just want to prepare them for what’s next.”
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