ISU’s Ellie Smith splits time between being a top-tier athlete and training as medical technician
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POCATELLO — The life of a college athlete is incredibly demanding.
Workouts. Classes. Practice and reviewing game footage. All in preparation for the travel, and physical and mental test of game day.
As if that jam-packed schedule weren’t enough, Ellie Smith, 22, includes clinical rotations at Portneuf Medical Center into her own daily planner.
Smith, a fifth-year radiology student, is a junior on the Idaho State University women’s basketball team. Throughout this season’s arduous journey to a 22-4 record, a Big Sky Conference Championship and the program’s fourth-ever appearance in the NCAA Women’s Tournament, she was simultaneously working rotations at PMC, helping navigate the Pocatello community through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was difficult, it was very stressful because I wanted to give my best to my clinicals, and practice, and school,” Smith told EastIdahoNews.com. “It was hard to figure out, but it’s just sacrificing all the other stuff that you would normally get to do. But I think that’s good practice because being that busy is what it’s going to be like in the real world.”
Smith broke down a normal day during the basketball season, starting with an early-morning workout, around 6 a.m. There was enough time for a quick breakfast between the weight room and hospital, where she would spend an eight-hour shift before heading directly to the gym for practice and film study. Dinner and homework led her straight to bed.
“A lot” of sleep was among the sacrifices made, Smith joked, adding that the weekends occasionally offered a little unwind time to get the pressure off her shoulders — when the Bengals weren’t scheduled for a Saturday game, that is.
“I am sure happy that I don’t have to try it.” ISU Athletic Director Pauline Thiros said of Smith’s “robust” schedule. “It’s the definition of perpetual motion.”
“It inspires me” she added. “If I’m feeling like a slug, if I think about Ellie I’m kinda like ‘hey Pauline, you’ve got no excuse.’”
Smith was happy to point to the support she received throughout the season from Thiros, the school and her coaches. Her teammates also worked to make her grueling schedule easier.
On a recruiting trip to ISU, Smith recalls the atmosphere standing out. There was an authentic family feel to the program. There was no separation between upper and underclassmen, no disconnect between player and coach, and no cliques. She felt at home and still does.
“They’ve been amazing, I love my team so much,” she said. “They’re very understanding, they know that sometimes I’m cranky, and I’m tired, I’ve been doing stuff all day. I’ve never felt like they’ve been angry at me for it, they’ve just been very supportive and it’s awesome.
“I don’t think it would be worth it to try to do basketball and this degree if I didn’t have that connection that I have with my team, which I think correlates with the success we have on the court.”
Smith was no small part of the success the Bengals enjoyed on the court, either. Not only was she a force defensively, the 6-foot-2 starting forward regularly chipped in offensively, including a team high-matching 12 points in ISU’s 65-55 semifinal victory over Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Tournament. A victory that set the stage for an all-Idaho conference championship — one that saw the Bengals throttle the University of Idaho, 84-49.
While stressors lingered throughout the season, including the fear of transporting COVID-19 from PMC to her team, the playoffs presented yet another.
Over the season’s final weeks, while the team was either in Boise or Texas for tourney play, Smith missed significant time at PMC. And while she is grateful for her clinical instructor’s understanding in the situation, she now finds herself working uphill to make up for time lost. And this while she is also preparing for her fast-approaching finals.
For Smith though, the hard work comes naturally. She has been playing basketball for as long as she can remember — at least since kindergarten — and she has always planned to pursue a medical career.
Thiros lauded Smith’s discipline and commitment through the process, saying that she makes the school and its athletic department proud.
“It takes a real commitment on her part, to keep it all straight, to keep herself fit and ready to be present at each one of those different, really important things,” Thiros said. “I think it’s, for her, like drinking water out of a firehose, and she did it all semester, and she made it look easy. It’s not easy.”