By Erin Sue / HTC
The epitome of a football player 6’2,” 225 pounds. Massive. Sports addict.
So how did a quiet guy from Florida, who would feel right at home designing RPGs for a living, find his way onto the turf?
His interests in video gaming, Sci-Fi thrillers, fishing, and playing cowboy on his family’s 1000 acre farm in West Virginia fill up this southern boy’s downtime. So he isn’t a complete dichotomy, there is a little wakeboarding, snowboarding and golf action taking place too. But the point is, that talking to Tre Smith seems misleading in so many ways. Are you sure this guy plays football?
On the contrary, this 5’11” 195-pound running back from Auburn University took the Ticats by storm in his rookie season last year. On June 26, 2008 against the Montreal Alouettes, Tre’s CFL debut, he ran for a 75 yard touchdown. Furthermore, he made an immediate impression on the team’s record book with 57 kickoff returns and 1,172 kickoff return yards — the second highest single season total in team history. Nerves don’t get the better of Tre and he’s not sitting somewhere on a cloudy pedestal. The CFL offers more room to play and space in which Mr. Smith is fan of, things happen faster and there are shorter play clocks.
“It’s so much more exciting. Up here it’s like play, play, punt, punt, play, play, score, touchdown, kickoff, punt. I’m just having fun, it’s football.” Modest, but a risk taker he is. “I’m not big enough to just stick with the stuff, I need to improvise. I try to hide behind people and trick them as much as I can.”
Entering college in computer engineering the freshman came to a crossroad, video game designer or professional athlete. “ I wanted to go into software engineering, but when I got into it, they told me at Auburn that I couldn’t do both, that it was too much work. I wanted to be a video game designer.” However bittersweet this may come across, Tre’s desire to play pro football and take chances got the better of him and he continued through to still earning a Masters degree in Information System Management as well as making school history.
Tre’s 72 punt returns and 621 punt return yards place him fifth and fourth highest in the books at Auburn.
“Tre played hard all the time, he played on all the other special teams. He was a gunner, a jammer and he was a key to this team,” comments Kevin Yoxall, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Auburn University. “Tre made a very pivotal block punt against Florida [in 2006] and scored a touchdown against the number one team in the league.”
Auburn University remembers Tre as a reliable teammate and a respected athlete amongst other things. A player who looked out for his team and never acted the super star. “ All-in-all he had a knack for what he does and that’s why he is where he is. He’s a very good running back,” stated Yoxell. 
Regardless of his personal achievement in the game, it cannot be overlooked that there were others on the field accompanying him to greatness. Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, a current running back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a top-five pick and Ronnie Brown, a current running back for the Miami Dolphins was the second pick overall in the 2005 NFL Draft. Tough competition. “We would compete in college, I’d beat them sometimes and they’d beat me sometimes.”
College made the dream reality, but growing up watching Barry Sanders on Sunday night football gave Tre his inspiration as a running back. Sanders played for the Detroit Lions from 1989-1998 retiring with a record of 15,269 rushing yards, 2,921 receiving yards and 109 touchdowns.
Tre is currently in recovery and getting him back on the field is a priority. “He’s going to have a little rust to get off because he has been off the field for a while, but we’re still expecting him to be a big player type of a guy. Be able to catch the ball out of the back field, run routes and carry the ball for us. He’ll be capable of taking on a lot of the offence,” commented Ticats head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. “We’re expecting each week for his intensity to pick up and for him to do more on the practice field.”
Fun Facts:
Pet: Shadow (horse) – West Virginia
Siblings: 2 brothers and 2 sisters (all older)
Least favourite food: I eat a lot of stuff, but what I really don’t like black licorice
Favourite junk food: Doughnuts
What do you do to calm your nerves before games: just sit around and chill – just relax
One word to describe yourself: Happy. That’s pretty much my philosophy on life. Just be happy.
Goals for 2009 season: So far, just get back out there and play.
