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Camron Smith

Alumni | Washington High School, Class of 2004

Camron Smith has always been known as someone with big dreams and aspirations. He always believed that there was more available than what was presently accessible. This outlook caused peers, and even family and friends to view him as a bit of a serial optimist. But Camron lived by the words of his mother Hattie Smith who always said, “If better is possible, then good is simply not good enough!”. This quote has fueled Camron throughout his life, as a husband, father, teacher, coach, and human being. 

Camron was born and raised in Kansas City, and attended KCKPS public schools throughout his upbringing. Camron excelled academically throughout his K-12 career in KCKPS. He attended Parker Elementary School from K-4th and finished off elementary at John F. Kennedy Elementary. He then completed 6th-8th grade at Eisenhower Middle School. Camron then attended Washington High School where he was highly decorated as a scholar-athlete, and musician. 

Camron was selected as the band member of the year as a Freshman Jazz Saxophonist. During his sophomore year his academic achievement led to him being selected as a member of the National Honor Society. Before graduating ranked 9th in the class Camron would go on to be honored as a Scholar Athlete by KCKPS, an All-City, All-League, and All-State football player, and a Who’s Who Among American Students Recipient. After High School Camron earned an Associates of Science from KCKCC, a Bachelor of Communications with an emphasis in Film & Media Arts from UMKC, and a Master’s in the Science of Education from Fort Hays State University. 

Camron is currently serving in his 6th year as a Digital Media Teacher, and the Head Football Coach at Washington High School. Under his tutelage Washington’s Digital Media Department has been one of the most fruitful pathways in KCKPS as it relates to Diploma + Endorsements. On the Field Coach Smith has instilled a culture of resilience and dedication through his motto ‘GCF’ which stands for ‘Grades Character Football’. His belief is that the classroom and who you are as a person comes before sports. 

During his tenure at Washington, Wildcat Football has claimed multiple historic wins, while ending lengthy losing streaks. Under Coach Smith the Wildcats have earned a League Title, Hosted 2 playoff games, went undefeated at home, been ranked in the Spectrum Power 25, ranked as high as 3rd in KSHSAA 5A, had a League MVP, 2 Defensive Player of the Year Awards, Two Special Team Player of the Year Awards, a Coach of the Year award, and 2 Kansas City Chiefs Coach of the Week Awards.

Before coming to Washington he taught for ten years at Northwest Middle School (now known as Carl B. Bruce Middle School) where he also started his coaching career. During his 10 years at NWMS he served as assistant and eventually earned the Head Coaching role of wrestling, basketball, and football. He had great success at NWMS as he left with 3 league titles in football (2 undefeated), 3 league titles in basketball (2 undefeated), and 5 undefeated league titles in wrestling. During these 10 years Coach Smith also served as an assistant coach at Wyandotte for 4 years (3 years in basketball, and 1 year in football). Camron has also been involved with the youth at the local church level. He served as the Youth Pastor at Amazing Grace Intl. COGIC for 7 years, and he and his wife now serve as
the ‘Youth & Young Adult Directors’ at Mt. Carmel COGIC. Camron’s entire life has been committed to adding respect to and serving the KCK community.

After years of serving the community, that dreamer reared its head again as Camron became a stand up comedian and began creating social media content under the moniker, ‘Big Cam I Am’. So many people were shocked by this decision for Camron, as a lot of people knew him to be very quiet and reserved. But Camron didn’t let any preconceived notions hinder as he dedicated himself to the craft of comedy. After a few years Camron was able to build a following of over 1.6 million followers across all platforms, and is in partnership status with four of the top social media companies: Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Youtube. Along ‘Big Cam’s’ social media career he has had over 100’s of million plus view videos, over 600 million views, and over 100 million likes. But he hasn’t ever forgotten where he’s come from as he proudly proclaims everytime someone asks where he’s from, “The Middle of the Map. KCK!” 

Whether he is known as Cam by his family, Mr. Smith by his students, Coach Smith by his student athletes, Big Cam I Am by his fans, Hubby by his wife of 12 years Brittany Smith, or Dad by their 10 year old son Camron Smith Jr. Camron Smith has lived and continues to live a life that exemplifies one of KCKPS’s true ‘Reasons to Believe’