NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State head coach Jenny Fuller added another national champion and all-American to the 2026 roster on Wednesday with the addition of outfielder JT Smith.
 
JT Smith – OF – 5-7 – L/L – Gr. – Decatur, Texas – Decatur HS / Grayson JC / UT Tyler
 
Prior to NSU
UT Tyler
NCAA Single-Season Record Holder – Runs Scored, 107 (2025)
NCAA Division II National Champion (2024, 2025)
NCAA Division II World Series All-Tournament Team (2023, 2025)
NFCA First-Team All-American (2023, 2025-unanimous)
D2CCA Second-Team All-American (2023)
D2CCA Third-Team All-American (2025)
NFCA First-Team All-South Central Region (2023, 2025)
NFCA Second-Team All-South Central Region (2024)
DSCCA First-Team All-South Central Region (2023, 2025)
CSC Academic All-District (2024)
First-Team All-Lone Star Conference (2023, 2024, 2025)
Lone Star Conference Gold Glove (2023, 2024, 2025)
 
Grayson JC
NFCA First-Team All-American (2021, 2022)
NJCAA Division I World Series All-Tournament Team (2021)
NTJCAC Player of the Year (2021, 2022)
First-Team All-NTJCAC (2021, 2022)
 
Began her collegiate career at Grayson Junior College (2021-22) in Denison, Texas before playing three seasons with perennial Division II power UT Tyler (2023-25) where her and the Patriots won back-to-back Division II National Championships in 2024 and 2025.
 
UT Tyler
Named to four All-American teams in her career, Smith hit .421 in three seasons with the Patriots starting all 201 games during that stretch…she has a career OPS of 1.335 with 36 home runs, 152 RBI, stole 85 bases in 91 total attempts and scored 257 runs of her own…during the 2025 season she scored 107 runs for the Patriots to set a new NCAA Division II single-season record…it was the most runs scored in a season by any NCAA softball player regardless of Division and just the second player to tally more than 100 in a season.
 
In Smith's 2025 video-game like season she led the nation in runs (107), HBP (30), on-base percentage (.595), total bases (184), triples (12), finished second in hits (98) and slugging percentage (.915) and had the third highest batting average (.488) in the country…she set new career highs in 10 offensive categories during the season to lead a stacked UT Tyler team to their second straight national title…she closed the season by reaching base in 48 consecutive games.
 
Smith had 66 multi-hit games and 47 multi-RBI games in her career at UT Tyler…she had on on-base percentage over .500, a slugging percentage over .650, had more than 30 extra-base hits, drove in more than 30 RBI and had more than 60 hits in each of her three seasons with the Patriots…a three-time Lone Start Conference Gold Glove outfielder, Smith had back-to-back 90-putout seasons in her first two years with 259 total, adding seven outfield assists for a .985 career fielding percentage.
 
Grayson JC
Played two seasons where she batted over .470 with double-digit home runs, had more than 60 RBI, hit 20 doubles, stole more than 25 bases and had OPS totals over 1.500 each season…in her sophomore season of 2022, where she hit slashed .494/.565/.988, she had 27 multi-hit games, including a 22-game hitting streak where she had 15 games with more than one hit during the stretch…she drove in multiple runs in a game 18 times, doing so 10 times over the final 15 games of the season…in two seasons with the Vikings she scored more runs (162), had more hits (170) and more RBI (131) than games played (104).
 
High School
Named district MVP and earned an all-state selection in 2019 following her junior season…named district newcomer of the year in 2017 and was a three-time member of the academic all-district team at Decatur HS.
 
Personal
Daughter of Debbie Smith…earned her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from UT Tyler in 2025 and currently pursuing a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance (Sport Administration) while at NSU…wants to become a college softball coach.
 
Fuller on Smith
"JT is a massive addition to our program," Fuller said. "I've known her for a long time and always believed she was destined for something special. She was one of the top Division II players in the country, and her accolades speak for themselves. She's a true five-tool athlete, and we're beyond excited to see her make an impact in a Demon uniform."
 

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Smith is the 14th signee for the Demons for the 2026 team. She joins Northwest Florida State products Hayden Andrews, Sister Arnold and Sara Watson, who were crowned NJCAA Division I champions this past season, as the fourth player to join the Demons that won a national championship with their previous team.