After more than 40 years of playing and coaching at the international softball level Mark Smith is officially calling it quits.
Smith announced his retirement after 43 years on Friday.
Softball Canada says his playing career spanned two decades, and he was considered one of the most talented and accomplished players of his era.
He’s been inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Heritage Hall of Fame, Softball Canada Hall of Fame, and the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame.
“With a heart full of pride and gratitude, I step away from the game that has given me everything I have achieved in my life,” says Mark Smith in a news release. “To have had the pleasure and good fortune to play along side and learn from some of the most successful players and coaches of any era is more that I could have ever imagined. It’s been an incredible journey.
The left-handed pitcher was the youngest member of Nova Scotia’s first entry at the Canadian National Junior Men’s championship.
He made the leap to coaching while still playing the game.
At the international level, his teams have reached the podium sixteen times in eighteen tries at major events.
Mark Smith. (Credit: Softball Canada)
That includes gold at the 2003 and 2015 Pan American Games, and two silver in 2011 and 2019.
He took over the Women’s National Team in 2009.
The program achieved its first ever World Cup podium results winning bronze medals in 2010, 2016, and 2018.
The most recent bronze medal win was at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan this summer.
Smith’s hometown is Halifax.
