Donoho’s Smyly moving
- Updated: May 9, 2017
After four seasons, the Lady Falcons’ basketball coach to begin ‘a neat adventure’ as teacher, lacrosse coach at Darlington School
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
After four “wonderful” years as Donoho’s girls basketball coach, Melissa Smyly is leaving the Lady Falcons this summer to embark on what she calls “a neat adventure.”
Smyly is leaving the school to teach English and coach girls lacrosse at Darlington School in Rome, Ga.
“I’ve had a wonderful four years,” she said. “It was really a hard decision because we love the Donoho community so much. Being a parent in the community and teacher in the community and coach in the community made for a tough decision.”
Ultimately, the “great professional opportunity” to teach at the prestigious private boarding school won out in the end.
Her final Donoho team finished third in its area and lost to JCA in the area tournament.
“It was a wonderful experience and the best part about it is we got better every single year; that’s what you want,” she said. “”This year we ended up pretty good as far as things go for Donoho. I feel pretty good about it. The only sad thing is my girls I’m leaving behind.”
Coaching lacrosse will be a new experience for Smyly. She would like to return to coaching basketball “at some point,” but this time away will allow her to enjoy the spectator experience while watching her children play.
“It’s going to be weird not to be in it,” she said, “but it’s nice to have one season as a mom and go watch them play,”
Meanwhile, the school is searching to find her successor. Smyly, whose brother Alex Mastin is the Donoho boys basketball coach, said since she’s isn’t required to be at Darlington until later in the summer she would prepare the Lady Falcons for their summer workouts.
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