MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP – Cody Kater and Alex Smith just kept bumping into each other.

It was almost as if fate kept them on track to eventually live out their “master plan” – to someday coach together at some level of football.

Their story dates back to 2009, when Kater was a hot-ticket state champion quarterback out of Montague High School, and Central Michigan University wanted him.

Smith, who was already playing for the Chippewas, met Kater on his official recruiting visit to the CMU campus in Mount Pleasant.

Kater says Smith was his official host for the visit. Smith said he wasn’t Kater’s host, but remembers being around him a lot that weekend, assisting in the effort to lure him to the Chippewas.

New Reeths-Puffer head coach Cody Kater gives instructions to new starting QB Brady Ross.

That effort was not successful.

“I just remember him being with us for a long time one night and getting to know him,” Smith said. “I thought it went well and he committed to CMU. But later I found out he decommitted and went to Cincinnati instead.”

That might have been the end of their connection, but Kater left the University of Cincinnati after one season, played at Grand Rapids Community College for one year, then was recruited by CMU again.

So he spent another recruiting weekend in Mount Pleasant, where his girlfriend (and now wife Hannah) was already a student, and they went to a party to honor her sorority flag football team. At the party Kater ran into Smith and learned he was the volunteer coach of the sorority team.

“He said he hadn’t heard about me for a while, I told him I thought I was going to commit to CMU again, and he said he thought that was really cool,” Kater said.

Kater and Smith spent the next three years as teammates on the CMU football team. Kater earned the starting quarterback job one season but was injured and lost it for good to Cooper Rush, who went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys. Smith played defense, as a linebacker and lineman, but saw most of his action on special teams.

R-P assistant head coach Alex Smith makes a point during defensive drills.

They were around each other a lot. They were among the few CMU football players in the physical education/ health programs, so they took a lot of the same classes. In the summer they worked together on the university moving crew, hauling furniture and other items from building to building on campus.

They discovered they had something important in common – an uncommon passion for football, even for college football players. They were both intense students of the game who absorbed the X’s and O’s, hated to lose, and loved to talk strategy for hours on end.

More than once they talked about how they would love to coach together one day, somewhere, at some level of the football world.

“That was always kind of like the master plan,” Smith said. “In college we always joked about it, but at that point I had no idea I would end up in West Michigan.”

 Reunited in West Michigan

College graduation sent Kater and Smith in different directions.

Kater returned to Montague, became an assistant under his former coach Pat Collinsand got a teaching job at the high school. Smith became a graduate assistant coach at Austin Peay University in Tennessee, then decided he wanted to be a teacher, so he returned to CMU to earn his education certificate.

Smith eventually became an assistant coach and student teacher at Shepherd High School, then he and his wife decided they wanted to settle in West Michigan.

Smith, who’s from the Chicago area, had driven through West Michigan many times on his way to and from CMU and noticed the beauty of the area. Kater also influenced the decision.

“It helped that Cody was the biggest West Michigan advocate on our team,” Smith said. “He was always talking about how beautiful it was.”

Smith got a job at Spring Lake High School in 2018 as a teacher and defensive coordinator for the varsity football team and had a chance to reconnect with Kater.

Coach Kater organizes the offense during drills at team camp in late July.

“He came to Spring Lake to scout, and that was the first time I saw him in two or three years,” Smith said.

“We started hanging out again –  our wives are friends, too –  and we would always talk football,” Kater said. “He came to Montague practices a few times, and he and his wife came to some of our bigger playoff games.”

Kater was widely expected to become head coach at Montague last fall, after Collins resigned and moved on to Holland West Ottawa. He was offered the job but turned it down, instead choosing to become the offensive coordinator at Muskegon High School. Then he changed his mind again, instead taking a similar job at a high school in Georgia.

Kater’s move to Georgia might have spelled the end of his dream of coaching with Smith, but fate took yet another turn.

After a single season down south, Kater applied for and got the head coaching job at Reeths-Puffer in January.

The news electrified the Reeths-Puffer community and entire area. While Kater had never been a head coach before, he came with state championship credentials. He was the quarterback when Montague won state titles in 2008 and 2009 and was the offensive coordinator when the Wildcats won it again in 2020.

After his move down south, few people expected to see Kater back in the area coaching any time soon, and that included Smith.

“I thought eventually he would come back, just because he loves this area so much and their families are here, but this was definitely quicker than I expected,” Smith said.

Coach Smith and linebacker Caiden Bolduc chat while watching offensive drills.

Kater kept Smith informed as he closed in on the Reeths-Puffer job. It was time to put the master plan into action.

“When I was going through the interview process, Alex came up in the conversation,” Kater said. “They knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to bring in.”

Smith was in a tough position by then. He had left Spring Lake to serve as an assistant coach at Grand Rapids Christian for one season, then became the head coach at Holton High School in 2021. He was successful and popular at Holton and enjoyed the job.

But his dream of coaching with Kater was too strong of a lure, and he resigned to join his old friend with the Rockets and take a teaching job at Reeths-Puffer.

“Holton is an amazing place,” Smith said. “I couldn’t have asked for better support from the administration, the community was awesome, and I had a great bond with a lot of the kids. But this was something Cody and I had talked about for years, and I saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If I had said no, I would have really regretted it.”

They have their work cut out for them

Kater’s coaching staff is loaded with former Division 1 college football players who have an intricate knowledge of competing at a high level.

The list includes Gary Niklasch and Kenny Finley, who both played at Western Michigan, and Jari Brown, who played at Eastern Michigan. The other coaches are Jeff Uganski, Tavon Jackson and Matt Kemp.

Smith is at the top of the list. Kater named him defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, and plans to lean on him a lot as they embark on their first season at R-P.

“I knew he was going to be my football backbone, the backbone of the program,” Kater said. “He loves it. He dives into anything and everything football. He’s a great student of the game. If he doesn’t know something he’s going to look it up. He loves watching film and watching drills. He’s a great resource to have.”

Reeths-Puffer fans can be sure of one thing. The new head coach and his top assistant are very much alike, and very much on the same wavelength when it comes to football.

Coach Kater watches as Brady Ross throws to Brody Johnson.

They are young – Smith is 31, Kater is 30 – and both have an incredible amount of passion and energy to invest in the R-P rebuilding process.

“We come from the same fold,” Kater said. “Football became very important to both of us at a very young age. We were both Division 1 athletes and we both were able to see how college programs are run.

“We’re very similar in our approach. When we don’t like something, or something doesn’t go well, we can both be pretty intense. We both want to make sure the product is what we want it to be.”

Smith said the chemistry he shares with Kater is priceless.

“The part that’s most exciting is sharing that passion we have for football and kids,” he said.  “It’s been really refreshing to work with a guy like that.

“We have a great relationship. Neither of us take ourselves too seriously. He’s pretty laid back and I am too – but not so much when it comes to football.”

Of course they grew up on opposite sides of the ball. Smith was a defensive player who studied defense, while Kater was a successful quarterback who learned everything he could about moving the ball and scoring points – but that brings balance to the new coaching staff.

Defensive line coach Jari Brown works with a group of players.

They have been actively engaged in trying to learn as much as they can from each other.

“We’re both driven by knowledge, and we never think we have enough,” Kater said. “I want to learn a lot more about defense. I’ve already learned so much from him in the last six months, and hopefully he’s learned a lot about the offensive side of things.”

“I think the best way to learn football is learning how the opposition is trying to attack you,” Smith said.  “Already in six months I’ve learned a lot from him and what he’s trying to do on his side. The growth for both of us is going to be really good.”

Only one thing is certain at this point for Kater and Smith – they have their work cut out for them.

The Rockets were 3-6 last season and 2-5 the year before. The prior three years they were a combined 19-17. The last time R-P made the playoffs was 2013.

The program has strayed from the glory years, like 1992, when the Rockets were 13-0 and state champions.

They have a few standouts back from last year’s team, like junior 1,000-yard rusher Brody Johnson, but many of the starters this year will be new and inexperienced.

Kater says it will be a step-by-step process.

“We don’t talk about winning or losing,” he said. “We don’t want to compare ourselves to other programs around the county or any of our opponents. We really want to just worry about improving and growing and being better than we were the day before.”

Smith says even inexperienced teams can have some success if they do the little things right and maintain a positive approach.

“We have a very nice group of players who just really, really love the sport, and any time you have that, you have a chance to win,” he said.

They have been actively engaged in trying to learn as much as they can from each other.

“We’re both driven by knowledge, and we never think we have enough,” Kater said. “I want to learn a lot more about defense. I’ve already learned so much from him in the last six months, and hopefully he’s learned a lot about the offensive side of things.”

“I think the best way to learn football is learning how the opposition is trying to attack you,” Smith said.  “Already in six months I’ve learned a lot from him and what he’s trying to do on his side. The growth for both of us is going to be really good.”

Only one thing is certain at this point for Kater and Smith – they have their work cut out for them.

The Rockets were 3-6 last season and 2-5 the year before. The prior three years they were a combined 19-17. The last time R-P made the playoffs was 2013.

The program has strayed from the glory years, like 1992, when the Rockets were 13-0 and state champions.

They have a few standouts back from last year’s team, like junior 1,000-yard rusher Brody Johnson, but many of the starters this year will be new and inexperienced.

Kater says it will be a step-by-step process.

“We don’t talk about winning or losing,” he said. “We don’t want to compare ourselves to other programs around the county or any of our opponents. We really want to just worry about improving and growing and being better than we were the day before.”

Smith says even inexperienced teams can have some success if they do the little things right and maintain a positive approach.

“We have a very nice group of players who just really, really love the sport, and any time you have that, you have a chance to win,” he said.