Veteran Peabody boys basketball coach Charles Smith has received a myriad of awards over his career, but now he has taken it to another superior level. He’s on the doorstep of summa cum laude type stuff. Rare air.

I’m talking about his being named this past weekend as a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. This is the highest Hall of Fame that exists for the sport of basketball. Its honorees include such legends as Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Pete Maravich, Shaquille O’Neal, Larry Bird, Kim Mulkey, Cheryl Miller, Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone.

“That’s top of the mountain type stuff, right there,” said Smith, 74, the only high school coach being considered for the 2024 class that will be announced in April and inducted in August. He is the fifth winningest coach in American high school history, with 1,204 victories and 214 losses. His portfolio includes eight state championships.

Nobody in the Alexandria area has ever received such an honor, and only eight Louisiana natives – Leon Barmore, Joe Dumars, Elvin Hayes, Malone, Mulkey, Robert Parish, Bob Pettit and Willis Reed – have been voted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

“That’s some high cotton,” said Smith, who is already a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame. “You can’t go any higher than the Naismith Hall.”

Funny thing, though, as a youngster, Smith never envisioned achieving such an honor; instead, he dreamed of baseball glory. Although he played basketball at Wettermark High School in Boyce, his early athletic heroes at the time were Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. He said he first got attracted to baseball listening to St. Louis Cardinals games on the radio.

“I could name you every player on every team in the major leagues back then,” he said.

Yet, he chose teaching math as a profession in 1971, and after stints at Slocum and Pineville High School, he moved in 1975 to Peabody, where he accepted Ernest Bowman’s invitation to be his assistant basketball coach.

Agreeing to be a “student” to a good mentor can sometimes yield fruit a hundred fold. In the classical music world, that was the case for one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in agreeing to be a pupil of Antonio Salieri.

“Coach Bowman showed me the ins and outs,” said Smith, “and after he retired in 1985, I took over, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Smith, in his first year of consideration, is one of six North American basketball finalists selected from 37 nominees. The others are NBA greats Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Michael Cooper and Walter Davis along with longtime Wisconsin Badgers college coach Bo Ryan.

To be elected, Smith and the other finalists – including in the women’s division, former LSU and WNBA sensation and three-time USA gold medalist Seimone Augustus – must gain endorsement from at least 18 of the 24 basketball experts from the Naismith Hall’s Honors Committee.

The Class of 2024 will be announced and introduced April 6 during the NCAA’s Final Four festivities in Phoenix. The induction extravaganza will be Aug. 16-17 in Springfield.