Jacob Lacey already has a nameplate in the Notre Dame locker room and Clayton Bush will be practicing with Western Kentucky in spring football in a few months. Rowdy Shea moved to Oklahoma for a job working with horses and Riley Sears has a construction job in Florida.

When Brandon Smith now walks the hallways of South Warren High School, pieces of that perfect 2018 football season are either gone or starting to trickle into the real world.

In a way, their recent graduation is helping him turn his attention to the 2019 offseason program. That feeling of winning a championship? Smith is addicted.

“It motivates you to do it again,” Smith told the Daily News on Monday. “It’s an addictive feeling once you do it. All it does is make you want it again.”

It’s that drive and strict attention to detail that won Smith his second state championship in four seasons and earned him the honor of The Associated Press Kentucky Coach of the Year.

It’s the second time Smith has received the top coaching honor in the state, which was voted on by 16 AP media members. Smith won the award in 2015 when he coached the Spartans to a 15-0 record and a Class 4A state championship.

Three seasons later, the Spartans duplicated that success at the 5A level, ending Covington Catholic’s 29-game winning streak in a 20-16 outcome in early December in Lexington.

In five years as South Warren’s head coach, Smith boasts a 63-8 (.887) record with no worse than a regional final appearance in every season.

Other coaches nominated for the Coach of the Year award were Chris Wolfe (Male), Rob Reader (Moore), Justin Haddix (Corbin), Marvin Dantzler (Central), Darrel Keith (Todd County Central) and Eddie Eviston (Covington Catholic).

“That whole award is based on your program and staff, support staff and how things are run,” Smith said. “I think it’s kind of rewarding for everybody. Here I am in year six and probably more understanding of that than I was the first time in the sense of how many people it really takes and how many things have to go right. I think it’s just reflective of the entire program honestly.”

Smith believes that Dec. 2 afternoon at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field determined the true state champion of Kentucky, not just in a classification. SWHS athletic director Chris Decker said MaxPreps later this week will award South Warren as the No. 1 team in all of Kentucky.

Covington Catholic beat opponents by an average of 31 points per game before facing the Spartans, who knew all about the Colonels’ machine. Covington Catholic stayed No. 1 in the Courier Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings and held the unanimous No. 1 spot in the 5A AP poll all season.

South Warren fell victim to that dominant run in 2017 with a 43-7 loss in the playoff semifinals. Smith spent all of 2018 knowing which team awaited the Spartans in Lexington if they were good enough to make it there.

It didn’t take long for the coach to notice this Spartans team was the real deal. Maybe the moment came when they jumped to a 36-0 lead on Franklin-Simpson, the eventual 4A champions. Or maybe it was a 21-0 win over Ravenwood, a 6A team from Tennessee that made its playoff semifinals.

Or perhaps it was the Owensboro win in the regional final. The Red Devils were red-hot after beating Bowling Green in the second round, but were delivered a 44-7 defeat.

South Warren controlled three quarters of the 5A final against the Colonels. The Spartans led 20-0 and held on to win by four, opting for an intentional safety late and leaning on the senior-laden defense to win the championship.

“When we were winning games we were supposed to win by large margins and I felt we never had that game that was a letdown when we weren’t focused, those are when I had thoughts this team might have what it takes,” Smith said. “I thought it was going to take that kind of team effort to accomplish what we ended up accomplishing.”

Smith’s team included 17 seniors that broke offensive records and mimicked a dominance on defense to that of the 2015 championship squad.

Lacey, Bush and Shea anchored a defense that allowed 9.6 points per game – including four shutouts – and allowed just 40 rushing yards per game. The 2015 squad allowed one touchdown per game.

Gavin Spurrier set new records at quarterback as the school leader in career passing yards (5,240), completions (369) and touchdowns (62). Spurrier, who will walk on at Duke, finished 2018 with 2,731 yards and 41 touchdowns against three interceptions.

Bush, a First-Team All-State defensive selection alongside Lacey, finished with 24 total touchdowns.

Those seniors were freshmen for the school’s first state title in Smith’s third year as the coach. What the school has accomplished in that time under Smith’s direction has surpassed anything Decker expected.

As the son of legendary Boyle County coach Chuck Smith and a former quarterback at WKU, Smith was hired right out of college as an assistant under Mark Nelson when the school opened in 2010.

Smith served as defensive coordinator under Nelson for two seasons. When the coach retired, Smith was promoted with Decker anticipating an exit after a few seasons.

“I don’t think our program would be in the position it’s in now without his leadership the last six years,” Decker said. “He put his fingerprint on that as we built. Brandon will tell you the same thing, he thought he’d be here two or three years and leave for somewhere else. Here we are nine years later and it’s worked out well for everyone. We’ve got a good setup and a good program.

“The attention to detail and how hard the kids play for him, to me that’s his biggest asset. They’ll do anything for him.”

And that’s Smith’s next objective, the reason he’s addicted to the chase of another title.

Appropriately, Smith recalled the statement of another successful coach describing the state of South Warren’s current status in chasing a third championship.

“There’s interviews and appearances, odds and ends in the community, pep rallies and that stuff,” Smith said. “In all honesty, you’re behind in all that stuff. It’s all nice, don’t get me wrong. I remember (New England Patriots coach) Bill Belichick said right after winning, ‘Reality is we’re five weeks behind everyone else.’ Part of that is true. You’re just playing catch-up.

“I always hated the feeling of being unorganized or not prepared. That kind of keeps me motivated and keeps me going.”{&end}