Kelly Smith, Head Coach

     As Coach Smith begins his 16th season at the helm for the Red Devils, he is averaging 35 wins per season.
Winning baseball games at Lower Columbia College, is not a new deal. Jack Riley, Ed Cheff, Scott Carnahan and Steve Farrington established and maintained that habit over the past 40 years and Smith, with a career (527-141) mark continues to keep the Devils at the top of the NWAACC heap. " Kelly ranks right up there with those former coaching legends," according LCC pitching coach Rob Hippi. " I played for Jack Riley and have coached with both Scott Carnahan and Ed Cheff. The common ground as I see it, is that no one player is special. They coach them all hard and in the end that is what earns them the respect of their teams. The kids know that they are getting better and that is their purpose in being here."
     Ironically, Coach Smith passed up becoming a Red Devil player himself upon graduation from neighboring Mark Morris High School. " I wasn't good enough," says Smith, "so I went to Western to play for coach Ralph Dick."
A centerfielder, with blazing speed, the former high school basketball star, spent 3 years in Bellingham and then when Coach Dick moved to Pullman, to become a Cougar assistant, he took the razor-thin, cat-quick, Smith along. Following a red-shirt season, which included a great deal of time spent in the weight room, he exploded on to the scene, for legendary Coach Bobo Brayton's Cougars.
     In the spring of 1979, he led the Pac 10 in hitting with a .418 average, stole 30 bags, and scored 69 runs, to earn All-Pac 10 and 3rd team All-American honors. Drafted in the 13th round, of the '79 draft, by San Francisco, Kelly went on to play 4 years in the Giants minor league system, the last 2 of which were spent at the AAA level, in Phoenix. Not bad for a guy who didn't think that he could play at LCC out of high school.
After his playing career coach Smith was hired, as the lead assistant, at Portland State, where he spent 7 years coaching in the Pac 10, under Jack Dunn. Kelly returned to Longview in 1995, following a stint scouting for the Oakland A's.
     In the 11 years leading the Devils, he has won 4 NWAACC titles, and had 5 runner-up finishes. All 12 teams have qualified for the NWAACC tournament and 10 have been Western Division Champions.
     Kelly Smith is obviously a good coach but he might be a better dad. He and his wife Lola have 3 children. Riley, Colin, and Shawna.

Rob Hippi, Pitching Coach

     Since the NWAACC went to wood bats in 1997, Lower Columbia has compiled a combined team ERA of 1.97. LCC has either led the conference or been second in ERA and K/BB ratio every year. Under head coach Kelly Smith and pitching coach Rob Hippi, the Devils have won four titles, and were runners-up five times, in the wood bat era. Numerous pitchers have been drafted (7 alone in 2005) or have continued their careers by going to Pac 10 schools or other Div I or II teams, more pitchers than any team on the West Coast.
     Coach Hippi retired from the public schools after 31 years as a high school U.S. history teacher/ coach. Rob has spent time as a head coach in baseball, basketball and football at the high school level. At Kelso HS, he coached major leaguer Jason Schmidt (Dodgers), ironically, not in baseball, but as as a wide receiver. Coach Hippi has coached pitchers at Lower Columbia since 1977 with a 10 year break to coach son Zach’s youth baseball teams. Hip coached Toledo HS to a WIAA second place finish to a Davy Johnson coached Ephrata team. Rob has spent 21 years all together at LCC.
     At Toledo HS, Rob was an all-state basketball player and played QB on two undefeated football teams coached by his Hall of Fame father Ted Hippi. Rob played collegiately at Central Washington University where he was (Topps) All- Pacific Coast, all EVCO twice(3rd all-time in K’s) and inducted into the CWU Athletic Hall-of-Fame (‘68 team), as a RHP.
     Professionally, he pitched in the New York Yankee organization from 1969-1972. At one time he held the club record for single game strikeouts at Oneonta of the New York-Penn League with 16, one time tied with Ken Brett.
Rob was the pitching coach for the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks with Ed Cheff when they won the ABL title in 2002, and 2003, and also the NBC National Championship, at Wichita, in 2002. He spent last summer as Ed Knaggs pitching coach leading the Wenatchee Apple Sox to their third WCL title in four years. Coach Hip also coached two Longview teams to the Babe Ruth World Series; In 1992, with his son on the team, and again in 2004.
     Coach Hippi has worked at several camps and has spoken at clinics all over the Pacific Northwest. He also offers private pitching instruction and provides camps and clinics at Lower Columbia.
Rob and his wife, Marysue, reside in Longview.

Grady Tweit, Assistant Coach

     Coach Tweit begins his 4th year as a coach at LCC He is a Red Devil through and through. Grady came here in 1997 as a 3rd baseman from Sehome H.S. in Bellingham, WA where he started for 4 years for coach Gary Hatch. Grady was early in a long line of Bellingham players to wear the Devil’s uniform. All of the boys from Bellingham that came to LCC played summers for Grady’s father, Murray, on the Post # 7 American Legion team.
     As a player Grady is remembered as a tough competitor who wasn’t afraid to get his uniform dirty. He led the Devils to a (40-5) record in ’99, including a 28 game winning streak. He played the whole season, every game, on a knee that would require surgery at seasons end. In 2000 he helped LCC to a 2nd place finish in the NWAACC tournament. Grady went on to complete his playing career at York College in Nebraska.
     Grady has been an assistant coach for 2 years at Sehome H.S. under Hatch, another summer under his dad, Murray, with Post #7, and a year with the Belligham Bells of the PIL, under current OSU assistant David Wong.
     In 2004 Grady was the head coach of the North Whatcom Senior Legion team and for two summers was the head coach of the Post # 7 Legion team out of Bellingham.
     Grady, his wife Alicia, 3 year old daughter Mackynlee and newborn son Gunnar currently live in Longview as Grady completes his B.A. in Social Work through Eastern Washington University.

Ben Greenslitt, Assistant Coach

     Ben Greenslitt joins the LCC coaching staff following a college baseball career that ended at Gonzaga and began here at Lower Columbia.

     Ben came to LCC in 2003, following an outstanding prep career at Bonners Ferry, ID in the Idaho panhandle. He was a three-sport star for the Badgers, earning 12 varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. Ben was voted the Idaho Male Prep Athlete of the Year his senior year, for all levels of high schools.

     He redshirted at LCC under Coach Kelly Smith in 2004 and then became the Red Devils designated hitter on the NWAACC Champion 2005 team, when he hit .333 as a redshirt freshman and showed signs that he would be even more of a force his sophomore year. That came true, as Ben was LCC’s regular left fielder in 2006 and was voted All-Western Division and All-NWAACC. He hit  a team-leading .429, with 30 runs and 24 RBI, while hitting in the #2 slot in the Red Devil lineup. Importantly in the Red Devil system, he also led the team in sacrifice bunts in 2006.

     Always a fierce competitor, Ben took his game to Gonzaga and immediately earned a starting outfield slot. Unfortunately knee and foot injuries cut into his opportunities with the Zags and he played in a reserve role much of his junior year and in his senior year. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Sports Management from Gonzaga in 2008.
     Greenslitt will coach the outfielders and will also serve as a special assistant to the athletic director as LCC Athletic Study Table Coordinator.