MOUNT PLEASANT – When Jimmy Noonan first put eyes on OrTre Smith, he thought he’d found Wando High School’s next quarterback.
The strapping, athletic middle schooler with a rocket for a right arm had a little too much on his plate to fully commit to the position, so the head coach’s vision of Smith taking snaps for the Warriors never materialized.
“At that time, he was trying to balance three, four sports,” Noonan said, during an on location interview with TheClemsonInsider.
“(Smith) was a pitcher throwing close to 90 miles an hour off the mound. He plays basketball — played AAU basketball, so he was doing almost year-round basketball and trying to balance that and playing some football.