When St. Aloysius football coach B.J. Smithhart took over from the retiring Jim Taylor as the school’s athletic director at the end of the school year, there was one key part of Taylor’s tenure he wanted to emulate.

“We’ve got good coaches here, so we want to let them coach and get them what they need,” Smithhart said. “I want to do as well as he did, because he has such a good rapport with the coaches.”

Smithhart, 33, is entering his fifth season as St. Al’s football coach and has big shoes to fill as the Flashes’ athletic point man. In Taylor’s final season, the Flashes won state championships in golf, swimming and tennis.

To ensure an orderly transition, Taylor informed the school’s administration last summer that he intended to retire.

“It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing, that’s for sure,” the 68-year-old Taylor said.

The athletic director job is one Smithhart is looking forward to tackling, no pun intended.

“It’s definitely more paperwork, but it’s fun,” said Smithhart, a Vicksburg native who graduated from Warren Central and then Southern Miss. “I just hope I can do as good a job as Coach Taylor did.”

Smithhart hopes to build on Taylor’s success. He hopes the school can build a new multipurpose building and an on-campus baseball field. St. Al’s baseball team plays at the city-owned Bazinsky Field.

“The list is probably a mile long, but you want to better all of your programs,” Smithhart said. “My goal is to get something for each program. The baseball field would be something we’d like to have, but we’re pretty landlocked. That’s going to take some doing.”

As for Smithhart’s predecessor, Taylor coached baseball, football and, finally, golf at the school. While he had a winning record in football in 10 seasons (56-52), his biggest legacy was the golf team’s recent run of success with five state titles in the last six seasons.

Taylor was quick to dismiss any credit for the team’s accomplishments.

“It was always best for me to leave them alone,” Taylor said. “Golf is pretty laid back, and I think the term ‘coaching’ is applied loosely. Our kids can play, and my knowledge of golf is not an attribute. I was just happy to help organize it.”

Now Taylor is ready to enjoy some time off, even though he’ll miss his days as a coach.

“Now, I can go hunting and fishing all I want to,” Taylor said. “Retirement is going to be something different. I’ll get a chance to visit kids and grandkids. I liked the competition and the challenge and I loved the Friday nights, but I’m definitely not going to miss those hot days in the July, August and September heat.”