Smith begins new era for Warrior's football

A new era in Socorro football has begun with the recent hiring of new head coach Derek Smith.

Smith, 43, played D-II football at Western New Mexico University, moving around the field as a defensive end, linebacker and even tight end. He played football, basketball and baseball for Morenci High in southeastern Arizona.

Smith comes to Socorro from Gadsden, where he coached since the 2019 season, serving first as a volunteer, then as head coach for the C and JV squads, as well as offensive and defensive coordinator. This past season he coached varsity tight ends, as well as assisting with the boys basketball team and the baseball program.

Under head coach Dino Facio, Smith helped the Class 5A Panthers to their first post-season appearance in 50 years and first home playoff game in 60.

Smith started his coaching career at Cobre High in 2005, helping with the JV. While at Cobre, he also was an assistant with the boys and girls basketball programs, and Smith said he anticipates also helping out the Warriors boys basketball team.

Smith also is a substitute teacher and has a background in security. There is a possibility that he will take a fulltime job with the school system in the latter position, which he said he welcomes so he can be in touch with more students to encourage them to play sports.

Keeping the program rolling as one of the top 3A teams in the state is just one of the primary roles as the football coach, he said.

“I want to go in there with an open mind and a positive attitude and do what I can to help build the program and continue the success that Socorro has had,” he said. “I respect (former coach Damien Ocampo) a lot. I know Socorro is going to be hesitant bringing a new person in there. But I know I’m going to do things. I’ve already been recruiting. Kids these days are big on social media. So I’m doing some promotional stuff to get kids interested and I’ll just go from there.”

Smith said he’s talked with the coaching staff and has asked them to stay on to help keep the continuity of the program and to help keep the current offensive and defensive systems in place.

“What I’m doing right now is figuring out what I do have and what I do not have,” he said. “I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. At this point in time, I don’t think that it would be in the best interests given how late in the season we are. They’ve been doing that system here for a very long time. I’ll talk with the coaches because I’m not trying to change everything around. I want to be on same pages, use the same communication, the same lingo, same techniques and make sure we’re teaching the right things.”

But being a head coach is more than just Xs and Os, Smith added.

“I want to provide and foster a safe and positive learning environment where coaches, young student athletes and their families strive to be better individuals and learn crucial life lessons through playing football,” he said.

Taking over the Socorro program was an easy decision, Smith said.

“I know that Socorro has a lot of good, tough kids and the program has been a top program in New Mexico (high school) football for many years,” he said. “I’m familiar with the area and I like the geographics and the close proximity to Albuquerque on top of being not too far from my friends and family in the Cruces/El Paso area.”

After struggling through high school when he was young, Smith said he understands the need to be a positive role model for the players.

“Giving these kids a means to be positive and productive is going to go a long way,” he said. “For some of them, their favorite time of the day is practice. So we need to keep them disciplined and to keep going to practice. We have to give them some kind of motivation in their lives.”

Fun Fact: Derek Smith picked up the nickname “Big Bird” while coaching at Gadsden.“I forgot how it actually came about, but I’m tall, 6-4, 280. …It just caught on,” he said. “It was a running joke. The kids caught on to it, ever since then, that’s what everybody called me.”