Former USF star Smith hired at Freedom

Former USF guard Cedric Smith has been hired as Freedom's new boys basketball coach, Patriots athletic director Elijah Thomas announced Monday.

Smith, who played with the Bulls from 1997-2001 and remains the program's career steals leader, replaces Travis Priddy , who stepped down recently after two seasons for family reasons.

He becomes the second prominent former Bull to take over a local program in as many weeks. Former USF low-post star Fred Lewis was hired at Middleton late last month.

"I think we got lucky," Thomas said of Smith's hiring.

Since graduating from USF in 2002, Smith has served in a variety of capacities at the college level, with stops at USF, Saint Leo, Virginia Tech and Radford.

Thomas said he'll join the Freedom faculty in the ESE department.