United Futbol Academy welcomes back former coach Jason P. Smith as the Program Director at UFA Norcross and the DA Boys Technical Director. Coach Smith holds a USSF "A" License and has over 30 years head coaching experience at the professional, collegiate, and youth levels. He spent 4 seasons as the Head Coach and General Manager of the Atlanta Silverbacks while participating within the United Soccer League’s First Division. During his tenure, the team set numerous franchise records including the club’s first appearance in a National Championship Final in 2007. In 2014, Coach Smith had a brief second stint as the Head Coach of the Atlanta Silverbacks Men’s Professional team while competing in the North American Soccer League coaching the side to victories over FC Edmonton, Indy 11 as well as the organization's first defeat of NASL powerhouse Carolina Railhawks.

Smith's coaching experience also includes 15 seasons of competition at the collegiate level with intervals at the NCAA II, NCAA III, and NAIA affiliations. While serving as both the Men’s and Women’s Soccer Coach at Piedmont College, he accumulated 291 wins and a .625 overall winning percentage earning 11 conference championships and 3 region championships. In 2003, Piedmont Men’s Soccer reached the “Sweet Sixteen” round of the NCAA DIII National Tournament in their first year of eligibility. In 2004, his Men’s team won its fourth GSAC Championship in five years. Essentially, he developed the Piedmont Soccer program from its infancy to national prominence. In 2018, Coach Smith was inducted into the Piedmont College Athletic Hall of Fame.

For the past several years, Coach Smith has devoted his full attention to teaching at the youth level performing as an ECNL Director on both the Girl’s and Boy’s side of the game. During that time, he led the 01 and 02 Tophat Girl’s ECNL teams to the Champions League divisional playoffs as well as winning a Super Y National Championship with the 01 AFU Girls. His most recent appointment was at GSA where he directed the Boy’s ECNL program. Likewise, Coach Smith is heavily involved with the Olympic Development Program and long-time member of the South Region staff. Mainly, he has assisted with the 2003 Boy’s South Region team accompanying the group to compete internationally in Costa Rica, Portugal, and Spain. Currently, he is the assistant coach for the 2002 Boy’s South Region Team.

As a player, Coach Smith is an Atlanta product graduating from Berkmar High School where he served as a team captain and leading scorer for their 1986 playoff team. A journeyman in college, he played for Kennesaw State, Truett-McConnell, and Lander University winning a conference championship and earning All-Conference and All-Region honors. After college, Smith continued to compete semi-professionally in the USISL for several local franchises including the Atlanta Express, Team XARA, Atlanta Quicksilver, Atlanta Magic, and Atlanta Lightning. He also played 9 games professionally for the Tulsa Ambush of the now defunct NPSL.

“I am extremely excited to be able to work with Jason again, his passion for teaching the game and his high work ethic on and off the field is going to be a strong help for us to keep on rebuilding our Norcross branch.” - Executive Director of Soccer , Iggy Moleka

“I want to thank Iggy and the other Directors at UFA for reaching out to me and granting this opportunity to return to such a great organization. I look forward to this new coaching endeavor and extremely excited about the potential for both personal and professional growth. It is an honor to work alongside such a prestigious coaching staff.” – Jason P. Smith