AASU Athletic Department Adds Two Positions

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The Armstrong Atlantic State athletic department announced today the hiring of Michael Smoose and Brittany Schmidt to assistant positions with the Pirates. Smoose will serve as the assistant to athletic director Andy Carter for internal operations, while Schmidt will serve as an assistant to the AD for Marketing and Promotions.

Smoose joins the Pirates most recently from Florida State, where he served as an Assistant SID for five seasons. While with the Seminoles, he served as a primary contact for several sports, including women's basketball, volleyball, men's tennis and track and field. A veteran of the sports information world for more than10 years, Smoose graduated from Ohio University in 1998 and received his master's degree in business administration from Florida State in 2006.

He moved to the Coastal Empire area in 2008 when his wife, Melissa Batie-Smoose, became the head volleyball coach at the Savannah College of Art & Design. The couple live in Savannah with Batie's nine-year-old daughter, Madison. Smoose will assist AD Andy Carter with day-to-day operation of the AASU Athletic Department and begin immediately.

Schmidt, meanwhile, adds duties of assistant to the AD for Marketing and Promotions to her assistant coaching position with the AASU volleyball squad. A former volleyball student-athlete and assistant coach at her alma mater, Wittenberg, Schmidt will be the Pirates' first marketing and promotions staffer since the 1998 season.

Schmidt earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Wittenberg in 2003 and her master’s degree from the University of Dayton. She and AASU head women’s basketball coach Matt Schmidt were recently married this summer.