MIDWAY, Ky. - Cole Smith believes he has a great strategy for determining how to best identify a quality potential athlete.

Smith, a first-year college wrestling head coach, is having an extraordinarily busy fall, preparing for two separate seasons simultaneously. Hired as the first women's coach in Midway history in February, Smith's Eagles will open their regular season on Nov. 8.

Weeks after taking the women's job, he was hired to take over the men's program on an interim basis, with that team slated to open its season at home on Friday.

Despite his exhaustive schedule, Smith, a former 165-pound national champion at Cumberland (Tenn.), has made a point to take a personalized approach on recruiting visits, one he believes has already paid off on the men's side.

"I always wrestle with the recruits, just to get like a feel for like what are they thinking mid-match," Smith said. "And they say 'We thought this was really cool of you to do this.' You get to know the athlete a little bit while they're wrestling."

Unsurprisingly, someone with such a proactive, hands-on approach doesn't have tepid expectations for his wrestlers, even in year one.

"We're trying to be national champions right off the bat," Smith said. "We're training like that from the get-go."

One person likely to be at the forefront of that charge is junior heavyweight Aaron Garcia, who has 38 wins in his first two season at Midway. After an illness ended his freshman season prematurely, Garcia was an at-large qualifier for the NAIA National Championships a season ago.

Smith has also praised the work of junior 125-pounder Zach Lewis, stating "he's one of those kids where you don't ever have to get on him" to do his work.

Other strong returners figure to be senior 149-pounder Nolan Jones and sophomore Alex Velazquez, who is expected to drop from 141 to 133 this season. A possible 133-pound fill-in is freshman Logan Brown, who Smith says has held his own against weight classes up to 157 pounds in preseason practices.

This group will have to once again be ready for the stress of competing in perhaps the toughest league in the NAIA. 

In the preseason national poll, all five of the Eagles' opponents in the Mid-South Conference were either ranked or receiving votes, with Campbellsville (fifth), Cumberlands (eighth) and Cumberland (ninth) all inside the top-10.

While not back-tracking on his "national champions right off the bat" expectations, Smith is pragmatic enough to understand the process in front of him.

"I'm not an idiot by any means. I know it takes time to grow," he said. "So I've kind of given myself the challenge (of) let's see what I can do in the first three years and go from there. But I really think by year four or five, we'll be competing for trophies for sure."

But the bar in the Midway wrestling room still remains high for 2025-26.

"All of our lightweights all the way up to heavyweights, we just have a really solid team," Smith said. "I think we'll take a lot of people by shock because people are underestimating us.

"Rankings are rankings. We'll get results."

The Eagles host Rochester Christian (Mich.) in Hunter Field House at 4 p.m. Friday, then travel to Corbin, Ky. for the Pepsi Patriot Open, hosted by Cumberlands on Saturday.

The Women's team was also slated to compete at an invitational this weekend but were forced to withdraw. That team preview will be released next week.