After all these years, these seasons, these teams - and there have been quite a few through a career that started in the 1960s - it's not the wins, or even the games, that give Dave Smith his greatest enjoyment as the boys' basketball coach at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy.

"I thoroughly enjoy practices," he said. "I probably enjoy practicing, maybe, even more than the game. There's a lot of teaching, a lot of hard work - and there's a good feeling that comes from hard work. There's a feeling of fulfillment from hard work."

And tomorrow afternoon, he'll be rewarded with that fulfillment for himself. Just a few weeks before the start of his 43rd year as a coach, Smith will be inducted into the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame along with eight other honorees - including former Winnisquam Athletic Director Judy Farr and ex-Henniker High hoops standout Karen Wood - during a ceremony at the Grappone Center in Concord.

Consisting of coaches, administrators, officials, athletes and contributors, this year's class is not one marked by unmatched records, or unbelievable dominance, but rather has distinguished itself by its long-standing and, sometimes, lifelong commitments to the amateur athletes of the Granite State.

And Smith's inclusion provides a sparkling example of that. He has certainly had his share of success, with more than 450 wins and a few championships on a résumé that shows him working at five schools and coaching three varsity sports. But that's not what he mentions when asked what's made him proudest in his career.

"It's more than the wins and losses," he said. "Each year with a team you do the best you can, kind of like in life you prepare to do the best every day. I believe we've worked very hard to do that: to prepare to do the best we can, every day.

"That's more meaningful than wins, or losses, or championships, or runner-ups, or the tournament, all that good stuff - which is certainly very nice, and trust me, no one likes to do that better than I. But I think it's the idea of preparing one's self in anything - whether it's basketball, or a job you do, or as a family member."

Smith credited his own family with its part in the honor, saying his wife "deserves a huge medal of some sort" for "putting up with it for 40 years," and speaking proudly of the fact his kids followed him into the field of education.

His own career took Smith to Laconia High, Alton High, Alton Central and Austin Cate Academy before he arrived at Coe-Brown in 1980. He coached JV basketball before taking over the varsity in 1989-90, then winning the Class M title in 1997, and he's also coached baseball and soccer at that level.

Since 1980 he's also been his school's headmaster, giving him a dual role rarely undertaken these days, and one that could've qualified Smith for the Hall as an administrator -- but he says he's glad he's going in as a coach, given the experience that job has allowed him over the years.

"It's the kids, definitely," Smith said. "As an administrator I see a variety of kids, but in coaching and basketball I get to see kids in a different perspective. And they get to see me in a different perspective, as well. Different goals, different objects; it's still intense, but it's intense in a different way."

Farr goes in as an administrator after a career of NHIAA contributions that began in 1968, and has outlasted her 2007 retirement.

Initially a physical education and health teacher at Winnisquam, she eventually took over as the district's athletic director for grades 6-12. That - according to former NHIAA Executive Director Jim Desmarais - made her the first female ever to hold that position within the state, and she was good at it, too. In 2004 she was voted Class M's Athletic Director of the Year.

Farr was also named principal of the school in 1996, and coached for more than 18 years, with her successes in field hockey, basketball, soccer and track ultimately earning her inclusion in two halls of fame for coaches. She retired a couple of years ago, but she still remains active in the sporting community, serving the NHIAA in several capacities, and continuing to chair the outdoor track committee as she has since 1992.

Wood left the New Hampshire sports scene long ago, when she moved to Florida in 1989. And she was actually born in Tucson, Ariz. But she used her time in the New Hampshire to become one of the greatest women's basketball players the state has ever seen.

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