Ashley Smith has moved from NCAA to NFL and has stayed close with her Super Bowl-winning brother, Trey
While many throughout Madison County and Tennessee know Trey Smith for what he’s accomplished on the football field in high school, college and the NFL, they realize he’s done that because of his tenacity and hard work.
Apparently that kind of work ethic runs in the family, because not as many people are aware of the rise his sister, Ashley, has made in the world of sports management and administration.
Her ascent in her own professional world resembles that of her brother to the point that she’s been able to be active in Trey’s life.
That’s come in handy too because – being nine years older than Trey – Ashley has stepped in to somewhat fill the void left when their mother, Dorsetta, passed away after dealing with a heart ailment for a few weeks on Feb. 10, 2015.
Ashley was still a senior at the University School of Jackson when her Type A personality began to benefit her. The Jackson Country Club was the site of a special event honoring the top seniors in the area that year (2009), and Joan Cronan, who was the athletic director for the University of Tennessee women’s sports then, was the keynote speaker at the event.
Ashley was introduced for her achievements and also her plans, which were to attend college at either the University of Tennessee or the University of Alabama. After the event and Cronan had finished speaking, Ashley approached Cronan.
While the two spoke, Cronan – remembering Ashley’s undecided plans for college - asked the upcoming college student what it would take to get her to continue her education in Knoxville.
“I told her that if I had the opportunity to work with the legendary Coach Pat Summitt, it was a done deal. I would be taking my talents to the University of Tennessee,” Ashley said. “And I was not expecting her to say ‘I think we can make that happen’ but that’s exactly what she said.”
Ashley had to work one of the Lady Vols’ basketball camps that following summer as a type of try-out evaluation to possibly be selected as a manager, but it worked. She was hired as a student manager for one of the top women’s basketball programs in the country at the time and one of the legendary coaches in American sports history.
She got to spend a lot of time with Summitt in her final years leading the Lady Vols.
“All of us managers would sit in a conference room with a large load of Lady Vol merchandise that she had to sign, and we had an assembly line set up with each person having their own job that centered on Coach signing the merchandise and people either setting it up to be signed or making sure it was properly packed after that signing,” Ashley said. “And it was during these times we’d talk to her and get life advice or career advice from her.
“Of course she was always intense during games, and she intense was in practice too. She was intense with us because she had high standards for everyone that was a member of the basketball program. It was an incredible experience working with her and learning from her. I learned personally from her that no matter how successful I become in life, it’s important to always treat everyone with respect, whether it’s the CEO of a corporation or the janitor, everyone is deserving of respect. I had the opportunity to watch Coach Summitt practice what she preached because she treated us with the same respect she did any of her players.”
Ashley did share one time when the managers dodged a bullet with Summitt.
“As legendary as Coach Summitt was, she was also superstitious, and one of her superstitions was having a certain orange stool to sit on during games,” Ashley said. “No matter where they were playing, she had to have that stool.”
The Lady Vols were playing in a tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands one year, and there was a lot going on during one of the game days. Ashley was one of three managers they brought on the trip, and they were at a brunch at one of the restaurants celebrating Ashley’s 21st birthday and then planned to head over to the facility for the game.
As they were getting onto a dune buggy to head toward the game, one of the managers mentioned the stool, and everyone thought someone else had taken care of getting it to the gym.
“I remember freaking out and thinking I was going to get fired on my birthday because she had to have that stool,” Ashley said. “However, we realized that even in the midst of freaking out, we had to do what managers do, and that is figure out a solution to the problem at hand. Fortunately our team masseuse was still at the hotel and was able to get in our room.
“We arrived at the gym and the team masseuse got there at the same time just as the teams were finishing their warm-ups. When the horn went off to get the game started, we had just gotten the stool to the bench in time for Coach Summitt to do her job.”
During her time in Knoxville, Ashley stayed in touch with Cronan as she also mentored her through her college years. In October of her senior year, Ashley sought out career advice from Cronan as she wasn’t sure of her next step. Cronan pointed her toward the NCAA Postgraduate Internship Program, a prestigious internship program in Indianapolis for young professionals wanting to work in sports.
“After my time at Tennessee, I knew that working in sports was definitely what I wanted to do,” Ashley said. “I actually applied for an internship to work with the NCAA women’s basketball department, but I didn’t get it.”
What she did get was an internship to work on the national championships for Division I, II, and III sports that she wasn't familiar with such as track and field, lacrosse, field hockey, wrestling, rowing, etc.. But in true Smith fashion, Ashley did more than what was asked of her to contribute to the organization and develop strong relationships throughout the building.
“I was an intern for a year and was assigned to three national championships,” Ashley said. “When the year ended, I had helped in 13 national championship events.
“I was very intentional about getting out of my work area and connecting with my coworkers, learning what they were doing and making myself available if they needed any assistance. It turned out several colleagues throughout the building needed help, and I was glad to step in and contribute while broadening my horizons.”
While Ashley was getting her career started, her baby brother was getting his started too in a way.
“I remember getting a call from our mom while Trey and my parents were in Oxford [Mississippi],” Ashley said. “And she told me the story that Trey has told a few times.
“Trey goes to the Ole Miss football camp and has an amazing camp. Coach [Hugh] Freeze invites him and our parents into his office and tells my brother, who is still in the eighth grade, that they’re offering him a scholarship. He and my mom laugh. Dad is sitting in a separate chair silent because he knows this is serious. Mom and Trey legitimately thought Coach Freeze was joking.”
Even though Ashley was living in Indianapolis at the time, she kept up with how Trey was progressing. As an eighth grader, he had two SEC offers – Ole Miss and Tennessee – and the offers kept coming.
His sophomore season went so well that his stock on the recruiting trails skyrocketed and he became one of the sought-after athletes in the 2017 signing class.
But New Year’s Eve night before Jan. 1, 2015, is when Dorsetta began to have heart complications that would ultimately lead to her passing on Feb. 10.
“Our mother’s death was a blow that devastated all of us,” Ashley said. “And we all had our own ways of dealing with it.
“I came home and stayed in town a week after the funeral, but I was ready to get back to Indianapolis and just deal with it my own way. Looking back, I realize that wasn't the right thing for me.”
The family heard many stories about how Dorsetta helped people financially or prayed for people or helped them out with a need like connecting them to a needed job.
“I think hearing those stories gave Trey some focus for himself,” Ashley said. “We all pretty much knew by that point that football would probably be the basis for his platform in high school, college and probably a few years in the NFL.
“So hearing about our mom like that gave him the inspiration to make football his platform, but always use that platform to glorify God as much as possible.”
Being away from everyone, Ashley didn’t do as well dealing with her mom’s death. And their father, Henry, helped get her turned back the way she needed to go.
“I battled depression, and I’ll admit I was borderline suicidal there for a brief time,” Ashley said. “I left Indianapolis for a month and a half and entered an outpatient treatment program to recalibrate and get myself together.
“I had a long heart-to-heart with our dad, and he said that mom wouldn’t want her death to be the thing that kept me from moving forward with my life. He said Trey needed me too, so I had to change gears because my brother was 15 years old and growing up without his mother. I was 24, grown and out on my own, so I began trying to reach out to him more and be a bigger part of his life.”
This led to Ashley taking on a more active role with Trey as he went through the recruitment process. Ashley was one of many advising him to not be loud about his recruitment. Say as little as possible, be humble, be gracious, be grateful and then make your choice.
In April of 2016, Smith was named by ESPN as the top recruit in the nation for the 2017 class, which just intensified the process even more. Ashley stayed in touch the whole time and actually was hired on by the University of Tennessee to help in the athletic department, but it was leading up to Trey's announcement in December of ’16 before he would enroll early that she felt like she may be moving into the motherly role for him.
“We had a couple of long talks leading up to that announcement, because even the night before, he still wasn’t sure who he’d go with. I just encouraged him to make a 40-year decision vs. a 4-year decision.” Ashley said.
Then came the day when Smith appeared on ESPN from the stage at Blankenship Theater on USJ’s campus, sitting at a table flanked by Ashley and Henry. The theater had standing room only remaining, and there wasn’t much of that available. Then he announced he was staying home to go to Tennessee.
“He loved everything about the program at the time, and there were so many reasons to go elsewhere,” Ashley said. “But I think he made the right choice. Not because I was there, but because he loved his time there.
“And whenever he comes back to Knoxville, he is treated like royalty. I’m not sure he would’ve had the same experience at any of the other schools he considered.”
Trey’s time at UT sometimes seemed as rocky as the dirt as the program dealt with coaching changes and NCAA sanctions, and he dealt with health issues with blood clots in his lungs that at one time caused a doctor to tell him his football days were done.
It was during this time that Ashley’s role as a mother-figure and their family’s foundation in their faith in God came into play.
“We saw Trey trust God in times when he didn’t want to because he didn’t like what God was allowing in his life,” Ashley said. “And we had no idea how this was going to end for him.”
Until Trey was driving back to Knoxville after spending the Christmas holiday in Three Way.
“Trey called me on New Year’s Eve after he’d been told to stop playing football, and he said, ‘This may sound weird, but God is in this car with me now talking to me,’” Ashley said. “And of course I didn’t think it was weird. I told him to keep talking.
“And Trey said that God told him that he wasn’t done playing football. He’d be back out there the following fall and that he would see success on the football field.”
That last statement from Ashley was said with a grin that comes with the knowledge of the past five years and seeing her brother win two Super Bowls.
Ashley moved on from the University of Tennessee and aimed for a job with the NFL. She was actually interning with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020 while waiting to hear from a job interview in New York with the league office.
In fact, Trey and Ashley experienced their first training camp together as the Chiefs drafted her brother in the sixth round of the NFL Draft with Pick No. 226 prior to her joining the Kansas City Chiefs as a Norma Hunt Player Personnel intern, where she evaluated players throughout the league.
“We thought his blood clot issue might bump him back to the second, maybe third round, but we were still hopeful he’d go in the first,” Ashley said. “So when he waited as long as he did to get picked, I felt bad for him but I was glad to see where he ended up.”
“I had a great experience interning with the Kansas City Chiefs and developed relationships with the entire staff including [Chiefs head coach Andy Reid], and I fell in love with that organization,” Ashley said. “In fact, when I was offered my job with the NFL, the Kansas City crew told me if I hadn’t got it, they would’ve tried to figure out a way to keep me on with them.
“But I think it’s better this way.Trey is living out his dream in Kansas City and I am living out my dream in New York."
Now Ashley works with NFL players from rookies to former players on their personal and professional development to set them up for success after football is done for them. So she’s kind of mentoring potentially every player in the NFL similarly to how she mentors Trey.
“He’s been to a few of my workshops, and he's actually heading to one this week after we host the inaugural Trey Smith Football Camp,” Ashley said.
Ashley and Henry typically get to Kansas City for every home game and a couple of road games each season, depending on where they are.
“We went to as many as we could Trey's rookie year, but we’d go and half the time, the team would have to leave and get back to Kansas City before we could even see Trey and we would be watching the game in the nosebleed seats,” Ashley said. “So we watch the road games on TV and get to Kansas City for the home games.
“I have my days when I reflect on our journeys and it's surreal to think that Trey's living his dream, and I’m living mine. I love my relationship with my brother, and even though losing our mom was and continues to be heartbreaking, Trey and I have become incredibly close which is ultimately what our mother would have wanted. We love her, we miss her, and we both try to make her and dad proud. We get through the tough times together and we celebrate the good ones together too. That’s what family is supposed to do.”
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
