The Hamilton Honey Badgers announced the signing of Ashton Smith as player development coach for the 2021 season Thursday. Smith is head coach Ryan Schmidt’s second new hire, joining David Tyndale as a new face to the Honey Badgers coaching staff in 2021.

        “Ashton is a great up and coming coach that brings a passion and enthusiasm for the game to our organization”, said Schmidt. “I’m looking forward to what he will add while also excited to help him take the next step with his career. His experience and knowledge will provide great insight for our players and we’re very fortunate to add him to our staff.”

        A four-year starter and three-year captain at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Smith graduated with a Bachelor of Science Communication Media degree. While at IUP, he was a PSAC Player of the Year, NABC Division II All-American, finished as the all-time leader in games played at IUP, and was a three-time conference champion. In 2009-10 Smith led IUP to a 33-3 record, the best in school history, and an appearance in the NCAA DII national championship game. Smith turned pro during the 2012-13 season, suiting up as a rookie for the Raiffeisen Dornbirn Lions in Austria. He had a successful eight year playing career for teams in Austria, Columbia, Indonesia, Germany and Canada. He played 22 games for Raptors 905 in 2015-16 and finished his playing career in 2019 with the Edmonton Stingers of the CEBL.

        During his playing career Smith spent time as a Player Development Coach for Uplay Canada and Toronto City Elite AAU during his off-season’s. After suffering a torn ACL during the summer of 2019, Smith went on to become the Director of Player Development at Bond Academy full-time.

        Smith and Tyndale join returning assistant coaches Sheldon Cassimy and Will Rooney on Schmidt’s 2021staff. The Honey Badgers open their season June 26 on the road against the Edmonton Stingers. Stops at Saskatoon and Ottawa precede the home-opener versus the Guelph Nighthawks at FirstOntario Centre on July 3. The games against Edmonton and Guelph will be televised nationally on CBC. Hamilton is coming off a 4-4 record and third place finish in the 2020 CEBL Summer Series, which marked the first professional sports in Canada to return to play after Covid-19 halted sports in March of 2020. More than 1.2 million viewers across Canada watched games live on CBC, and games were carried to more than 130 million viewers around the world.