The first head baseball and softball coaches for the new Christian County High School were announced during a news conference Tuesday morning at the Christian County Board of Education Board Room.
Dustin Smith will be the Tigers’ baseball coach. Smith comes to Christian County from Clarksville Academy.
Smith is a 1998 graduate of Clarksville Northeast High School. He went on to play at Austin Peay and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers. Smith played several seasons in the Tigers’ minor league system.
He returned to Northeast High School where he was head coach for 13 seasons. Smith is the winningest head coach in Northeast baseball history.
In 2017, he led the Eagles to the regional title and advanced to the sectionals.
In his final seven seasons at Northeast, Smith won at least nine district games five times and he won at least 20 games his last five seasons.
Smith stepped down as Northeast head coach in 2017 for family reasons but joined the Clarksville Academy staff about a month later.
He was in charge of the Clarksville Academy pitching staff in two years as an assistant coach. Smith took over as the Academy head coach in 2019. He led the Cougars to the 2024 Division II-A state semifinals in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Lady Tigers’ softball program will be led by Ashlie Ezell.
Ezell is a former University Heights Academy head coach and she served as the Christian County Lady Colonels’ assistant coach in 2026.
At UHA, Ezell coached for two seasons and accumulated a 10-20 record. She led the Lady Blazers to two appearances in the Region 2 tournament.
Ezell stepped down following the 2025 season and accepted a position on the Christian County Lady Colonels’ coaching staff as an assistant coach and middle school coach.
We will have an updated story later today.