Daniel Smee has spent six seasons with the Golden Eagles and three as Head Coach. Since arriving as an assistant in the fall of 2017, Smee has won two NCAA Division II National Championships, three Regional Championships, five Mountain East Conference Tournament Championships, and five Mountain East Conference Regular Season Championships. He has also won MEC Coach of the Year twice and was part of the National and Regional Staff of the Year in 2017. 

A native of North Shields, England, Smee played soccer professionally in the Scottish Premier League for Gretna Football Club from 2006-2008. He went on to win a National Championship with TyneMetropolitan College in the UK before pursuing a collegiate career in the USA. He attended UC’s Conference rival, West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he was a three-year captain, eight-time representative on the Dean’s List, All-Conference, All-Region and All-American.

Following his graduation from WVWC, Smee pursued a master’s in Resource Management at Slippery Rock University and while earning this master’s, Smee began his coaching career. He served as the Men’s Soccer Graduate Assistant for the 2013 and 2014 fall seasons and filled in as the Interim Head Coach for the spring semester in between.

Upon graduation from SRU, Smee moved to Charleston to coach youth soccer. He got back into collegiate coaching soon afterwards, landing a position as the Men’s Soccer Assistant Coach at Lees-McRae College for the 2015 fall season. He then chose to move on and volunteered here at UC in the spring of 2016, before heading back to West Virginia Wesleyan College for the 2016 fall season. He was hired as the UC’s new Head Coach in January of 2020 and his team finished 10-0 in his first season in the role.

Smee is a qualified coach with both his US Soccer C and English FA Level 2 licenses, and even has an English Level Seven referee license.