Julia Smith begins her first season as assistant women's basketball coach at California Baptist University.

A Riverside native and CBU graduate, Smith returns to the Inland Empire after serving as an assistant coach and Director of Basketball Operations with UC Irvine from 2009-11.

Prior to her time in Irvine, Smith was an assistant coach at San Bernardino Valley College from 2006-08, helping the Wolverines to the regional finals in 2007 and a conference championship in 2008. In 2005-06, Smith was an assistant coach at Riverside Community College helping to guide the team to a final four appearance.

While at Riverside, Smith also served as the men's cross country coach, leading the Tigers to a conference championship in 2005 and was an assistant track and field coach at J.W. North High School from 2005-08 as well.

Smith was a player at UNLV from 2001-03, transferring from Washington where she played from 1998-2000. With the Rebels Smith was named Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and played in the NCAA National Tournament in 2002 and the NIT in 2003. She was a Pac-10 All-Freshman honorable mention and Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention at Washington as well.

Smith earned an M.S. in Kinesiology from CBU in 2004 and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from UNLV in 2002.

She prepped at J.W. North High School where she played basketball for John Rienhold and ran track for Charles Leathers. Smith and her husband, Damien have a son, Dontae.