KU softball taps coach: ex-LSU aide

By Tom Keegan     Jun 19, 2009

Megan Smith, assistant coach at LSU for the past three seasons, has been selected as the next softball coach at Kansas University, the Journal-World has learned.

Smith succeeds Tracy Bunge, who retired after 13 seasons as head coach of the Jayhawks.

Before taking the job at LSU, Smith was the head coach at Western Carolina in 2006, the first year of the program. The Catamounts went 41-20 that season and won the Southern Conference regular-season title. Western Carolina hit a conference-record 81 home runs that season, third-most in the nation in 2006.

A native of Walkertown, N.C., Smith came to Western Carolina from her alma mater, North Carolina, where she was an assistant coach. Smith also worked as an assistant coach at Charlotte (2002) and a head coach at Young Harris College in Georgia (2000-2001).

A third baseman at North Carolina, Smith was team captain as a senior, broke the school record for RBIs in a game and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 1999.

She was a three-time ACC honor roll selection. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in exercise and sport science and recreation administration from North Carolina. In 2000, Smith earned a Master of Science degree in human performance and sports management from the University of Tennessee.

Smith and her husband, Paul Buske, have one son, Cooper Smith Buske, who turns 2 on Aug. 6.

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