“We saw him on the little league fields and the midget football fields,” Bainbridge High School principal Tommie Howell said. “We watched him grow up. He’s one of our children.” Teachers, coaches, teammates — everybody’s proud that they interacted with Smart at one point or another.

Even Stan Killough’s wife, an Auburn graduate, rooted for Alabama because Smart coached there. Twenty-two years ago, Smart was a boy from Bainbridge headed off to play college football at Georgia. His dream was to one day be a high school head coach. Now, he’s nine days away from coaching his first game as the head coach at the University of Georgia. Courtesy UGA Sports Comm Graphic by Lindsey Conway Everybody knows Smart’s name these days, but they knew him first in Bainbridge. And early on they recognized there was something special about him. The competitiveness, the drive, the focus, the intensity.

Those characteristics defined him and have carried him to where he is today. “We always knew he was going to be successful,” said Killough, the athletic director at Bainbridge. “Did we always know he was going to be the head coach at the University of Georgia? We didn’t know that, but we knew he was going to be successful.” ‘Intense in Competition’ In a section of the 1994 Bainbridge High School yearbook devoted to “Outstanding Seniors” there’s a picture of salutatorian, senior class president, math league MVP and AP student Kirby Smart. Kirby Smart stands in a classic yearbook pose for a photo as an AP student at Bainbridge High School Photo Tommie Howell He stands in a classic yearbook pose: right arm holding a tree branch, eyes transfixed on the camera, mouth slightly open. His haircut hasn’t changed in 20 years.

Frankly, he looks pretty much the same. Travian Server Script Download. “A little thicker,” Howell quips.

“But it’s the same face.” Next to Smart’s picture is a passage he wrote about himself: Likes: sports, winning. Dislikes: putting up with ignorance; waking up for school. Plans After Graduation: Attend U.G.A. For football, major in business and find a wonderful wife. Remembered For: being intense in competition. Sure enough, Smart would go on to play safety at Georgia, major in finance at the Terry College of Business and marry Mary Beth Lycett, a former Georgia basketball player. Although everything in the previous sentence is true, the last line is the one that defines Smart the most.