Published: April 22, 2008 06:17 pm            

JAY SMITH: Logistics manager and traveling athlete

ATLANTA, GA. — He was on the winning side of the World Series once.

In men’s’ softball, that is.

At 30 years old and out of school a while now, Jay Smith remains a dedicated amateur athlete.

Smith, a Middleport, N.Y., native who helped make history for his high school in the mid 1990s, recently started his fifth season with Source One/D-Train, a men’s softball team that travels the southeastern United States and won the “World Series” in 2006. He’s been a team member for as long as he’s lived in Atlanta.

It’s something to do for a still-single guy who’s always been a sports nut.

When he was a student at Royalton-Hartland Central School, Smith consistently was a local newsmaker, as a Rams quarterback, baseball and basketball player. Veteran coach Mark Ryzda remembers him as one of the stars of the 1995-96 basketball team that snagged Roy-Hart’s first league title in nearly 30 years.

The blush is off those glory days but competition’s still a thrill for Smith. In his professional life, he’s a logistics manager for FedEx and his daily challenge is to figure out the simplest, most cost-efficient ways of getting packages from Point A to Point B. Throw the concept of volume into the mix and he’s got his work cut out for him.

“It’s changing every day. It’s always something new,” Smith said. “That’s the thrill of it.”

Smith earned a degree in business management from Gannon University in Pennsylvania. His first job after college didn’t last long; he was laid off less than a year after being hired and moved to Georgia, where his brother Paul helped him get a foot in the door at FedEx.

“It’s not what you know, after all, it’s who you know,” Smith joked.

Busy as he is at work and play, Smith doesn’t make it back to mom Shari’s home too often any more. He was last home a few months ago, when his dad Phil died. At that time, an unrelated event reminded him why, much as he loves Atlanta, it doesn’t quite match what he left behind.

Smith took in the Feb. 14 Rams-Newfane basketball game, at which a disabled Newfane student took to the Roy-Hart floor with the Rams’ blessings to make a free throw and a couple of baskets. The grace of it all stayed with him well past the game.

“We didn’t win, but that’s OK. That kid making those baskets was really a sight to see,” Smith said. “I really enjoyed my time there. Western New York will always be home.”



Joyce Miles 4/7/08 (Breakout)

• Who: Jay Smith

• Where he is now: Atlanta, Ga.

• Reconnect with him: by e-mail at Jay.Smith@national.fedex.com

        

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