Catching Up With: Former VHS and current Huntingdon College sophomore cornerback Kaiman Smith

Getting that first collegiate interception out of the

way has been a relief. About the second one that didn’t count. “The referee

said I was out of bounds,” said former Veterans High School defensive back and

three letter athlete Kaiman Smith, now a sophomore starter at defensive back

for the Huntingdon College Hawks. “They wouldn’t give it to me even though I

dragged my feet.” The former Warhawks player hasn’t lost a bit of his

competitiveness during the transition from high school standout to college

freshman to starting collegiate defensive back. “It was a good feeling, I’m

glad I got that off my chest,” said Smith of his first interception last

Saturday during the Hawks 41-35 loss to rival Birmingham Southern. “It was fun,

especially in a big game in front of a big crowd.”

A game down, four tackles and an interception

later, Smith was done with classes for the day on Wednesday afternoon and

awaiting the regularly scheduled 4 p.m. practice. While he has a ton of things

to do as a college student-athlete, Smith always has his eyes and ears on

what’s going at his alma mater, in particularly on the football field. After

all, his twin brothers, backup quarterback Kederek and defensive back Kamron,

are on the team. The sophomores and their teammates are experiencing a

breakthrough season with a 4-0 start and Kaiman is excited about how things are

going. “They look good, they have a lot of good players and coaches and I’m

proud of them,” said Kaiman who plans to be in town on Friday night for the

game against rival Houston County High School at Freedom Field.

The Hawks have a bye week on Saturday and that

gives Smith a chance to head home for the weekend but there’s still work to be

done in the remainder of the week. The Hawks season opener in Greensboro, North

Carolina at Guilford College was ultimately cancelled due to weather concerns

after having played parts of the game so they have only played one complete

game thus far and need to stay sharp. “The loss was a heartbreaker,” said Smith

of the loss to Birmingham Southern, “but we are going to take it as it comes,

heal up, get treatment  and get back in shape and be ready for next week.”

The Hawks will play at home against Thomas More College on Sept. 22.

During his freshman season Smith had to get used to

being one of the best athletes in the secondary and not the best. In eight

games last season Smith totalled 10 tackles. As a sophomore he already has four

with two pass breakups and of course that interception. “Kaiman is a great kid and I am very proud of how he has performed so far this year,” said Hawks head football coach Mike Turk, a former Division II national championship player himself. “He has developed into a starter for us and has played well, he’s still learning but we expect big things from him. We’re happy Kaiman is a Hawk.”

 “I’m staying on top of

my grades, doing what I’m supposed to do on and off the field and getting

support from my teammates,” said Smith when asked how he was doing at school.

Now about that almost interception. Looks like Smith is going to just

have to go back out there next week and during following weeks this season and

get some more to replace the one that got away.

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