American Heritage head coach Mike Smith discusses growing connection with the Miami Hurricanes

The growing connection between the Miami Hurricanes and American Heritage High School has been well documented recently, and it is something Patriots head coach Mike Smith hopes to maintain in the future.

Miami’s roster now includes three American Heritage grads, Darryl Porter, Davonte Brown, and James Williams, and freshmen Mark Fletcher and Damari Brown will join the squad in the summer.

Seeing his former athletes play at the collegiate level and beyond is always a great feeling for Smith, who has been on the American Heritage football staff since 2013. But seeing them share the same field for the hometown team is that much better.

“That’s huge and even a step further with them being the local team and them being right here,” Smith told CaneSport. “We had some guys together before, but you had to go to Athens, Georgia. Now you’re going right down the road, and now it’s the home team. It’s a program that wants to be on the come up and our guys are going to be a piece of that puzzle, which is exciting.”

With a handful of former American Heritage athletes now in Coral Gables, Smith feels his players will be well-equipped to make an impact at the next level, both on and off the field, at Miami.

“Within a program, you have certain principals, and with us, ours are discipline, attention to detail, and work ethic,” Smith said. “We’re seeing the same things coming out of Miami. I know that my guys will be a good fit there, but I also know that Miami will be getting someone that is schooled on the same principles.”

Smith believes the two programs’ connection will continue to grow

Throughout Miami’s spring football practices, Smith and a few American Heritage prospects from the 2024, 2025, and 2026 classes made their way down to Coral Gables as the two institutions’ ties continued to grow.

“We’ve had a lot of guys go down there for their spring practices,” Smith said. “There’s definitely a relationship there, and obviously now because we’ve got a bunch of guys down there, we want to continue to build that relationship.”

After finishing last year’s recruiting cycle with the No. 6 class in the country according to the On3 Industry Ranking Football Team Recruiting Rankings, Smith feels Miami will be able to sustain its recruiting success under head coach Mario Cristobal in year two. But he knows that a strong showing on the field is a vital step for the program this upcoming season.

“It’s like any program,” Smith said. “At first, you have your initial phase, where you set your plan and all that. But now, results are the next portion of that. Sometimes Miami fans are a little impatient because of the five national championships and all that. But you’ve just got to see the progression now. The first year was kind of a feeling-out process, and now you head into the next year and see if they’re starting to make that turn and are they building towards becoming national contenders.”

If the success on the recruiting trail translates to wins on the field, Smith believes Cristobal and the Hurricanes will be a force to be reckoned with in college football for years to come.

“If they start rolling and you start seeing an exciting brand of football, that’s going to continue to attract kids,” Smith said. “You win, and they come. It’s a bottom-line business. This has got to be the year they start winning, and if they start winning, watch out, because the kids are really going to start to buy in.”

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