Dave Smyth is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender who spent two seasons in the American Soccer League and two in the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

. He also earned one cap with the U.S. national team.

Playing

High school and college

Smyth was the 1983 Nassau County Player of the year while playing with Hicksville High School. David Smyth attended UNC-Chapel Hill where he played as a

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

on the men’s soccer team from 1984 to 1987. He was a second team All-American in 1986 and a first team All-American in 1987. Playing as a defender, he placed eighth on the schools record. He left college to pursue a professional career before finishing his degree, but returned to UNC in the mid-1990s to gain a bachelor’s degree in physical education.

Professional

In 1988, Smyth signed with the Albany Capitals of the American Soccer League. In 1990, the ASL merged with the Western Soccer League to form the

(APSL). The Capitals then spent the 1990 and 1991 season in the APSL before folding.

National team

Smyth earned one cap with the U.S. national team in a 1–0 loss to

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. Most records list him as “Dan” Smyth.

Coaching

After retiring from playing, Smyth spent a season as an assistant coach with Skidmore College. He then returned to North Carolina where he became an assistant men’s soccer coach at Duke University until 1999. That year, he was hired to coach the Myrtle Beach Seadawgs of the USISL, but the team folded before the season began.Article in the September 16, 2002 Daily Tar Heel
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, David Living people United States men's international soccer players All-American college men's soccer players American Soccer League (1988–89) players Albany Capitals players American soccer coaches Duke Blue Devils men's soccer coaches North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' soccer) American men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Year of birth missing (living people) Soccer players from Nassau County, New York People from Hicksville, New York Skidmore College faculty