Athlete of the Week - Noah Smith, Mayo Football

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Its all coming together for Mayo Football.

As Mayo Head Coach Donny Holcomb has found just the right group.

“They believe in each other, they’re great friends, great teammates. They’re striving to win and they’re striving to be champions,” Holcomb said.

To get the Spartans to the state tournament for the first time since 1997.

“I mean we’ve had a lot of good teams and ended up in the section final game a good number of times, but never been able to get over the hump.”

You could say they just need an opportunity. After a junior season spent behind DeMonte Simmons at running back, Noah Smith has taken the number one spot this year, and he’s ran with it.

“My coaches always believed in me, they always told me that my chance is going to come, you’re going to get your opportunity just be ready for it. So I just kept that in mind, I stayed humble and I knew that I would get my chance when it came,” Smith said.

He’s made it count to the tune of 22 touchdowns, 3 of those in the section championship game.

“I knew all along, my coaches knew all along that I could be that player so I mean it was finally good to get to show that to everybody,” Smith said.

“We’re not surprised at all. I know there’s a lot of people that maybe surprised and some college coaches that should take a lot more interest in him than they are, but he’s a fantastic athlete both in football and in track and has worked extremely hard to get where he’s at,” Holcomb said.

He’s shown everyone a game that’s simply smooth.

“Smooth is a great word. He’s a one cut and go, makes people look like their on ice. I would just say he’s a very smooth and he’s fast, he’s track fast,” Holcomb said.

Now he’s got the Spartans on the brink of something special.

“It feels good I mean sky’s the limit, I feel we can take it all the way and win. That’s been my mindset, the team’s mindset the whole time. So we just keep that in mind and we keep working and grinding,” Smith said.

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