Jimmy Cleaveland aims to teach students one important lesson.

“Through hard work comes success,” Cleaveland says.

Hard work is what brought Cleveland full circle from playing on the Sylva-Webster High School football and basketball teams to becoming Smoky Mountain High School’s Athletic Director, Assistant Principal and Boys Basketball Coach.

Cleaveland went to elementary school on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Reservation, moving up from Smokey Mountain Elementary School to Sylva-Webster High School. There he was a guard on the basketball team and a safety and wide receiver on the football team. As a junior, Cleaveland was a member of the Golden Eagle football team that was undefeated until the state semifinals. When Cleaveland graduated in 1985 the basketball team won conference and sectional championships and played in the Western Regionals.

It was in high school that Cleaveland says he learned from his parents, teachers — including Rhonda Woodard and Larry Crawford — and coaches — including Lionel Brooks and Gene McConnell — that life is about more than winning and losing. It’s about not giving up.

“When you’ve got your back against the wall, what are you going to do?” Cleaveland asked.

Cleaveland went on to college at Western Carolina University. He began taking general education classes, not having much of an idea as what he wanted to major in. He asked himself what he could do to be happy — it turned out that continuing on with athletics was the answer. He graduated in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.

Cleaveland began teaching at an elementary school and coaching football at Brevard High School, a job that lasted for six years. He moved on to Pisgah High School in Canton, where he was the assistant football coach for six years and assistant basketball coach for three years.

After those three years as assistant basketball coach, Cleaveland was promoted to head basketball coach. Cleaveland led the Pisgah Bears to an undefeated season and state 2-A title in 2005, earning him the title of Associated Press State Coach of the Year. During six years at Pisgah he posted a 126-30 record.

It was on that high note that Cleaveland was contemplating getting out of coaching. He had earned his masters degree in school administration while at Pisgah and had thought about moving in to an assistant principal job there when the position at SMHS came open. School administration runs in Cleaveland’s family — his father, the late Ray Cleaveland, was superintendent of Cherokee Indian Schools and his sister Raylene Bryson is an assistant principal at SMHS.

Cleaveland seized the opportunity to put his new degree to use — he became assistant principal at Jackson County’s School of Alternatives — and also coach at SMHS.

His first year at the helm of the basketball team, Cleaveland and his players made it to the second round of the playoffs and came within a point of going to sectionals. It was an amazing turn for the team, which had losing records in 12 of the last 13 seasons.

“The expectations are high but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Cleaveland said.

This year the Smoky Mountain boys were the state’s top-ranked 2-A basketball team in the first NCPreps.com polls of the season.

A special consideration in coaching at SMHS is that incoming players may or may not have had prior experience in competitive sports, and students are coming in from four different feeder schools — Cullowhee Valley, Fairview, Scotts Creek and Smokey Mountain Elementary.

“We’re in a unique situation that we don’t have a middle school,” Cleaveland said.

As a result, players haven’t had the chance to get to know one another before being put on a team with each other. Getting players to play as a team and move beyond any grade school rivalries is a challenge, Cleaveland said.

“I take it one day at a time, one game at a time, one season at a time, that’s for sure,” he said.

That said, Cleaveland doesn’t know how long he’ll stay in coaching. His wife, Lisa, teaches at Jonathan Valley Elementary School in Haywood County. Both of his children, Anna, 10, and Clay, 5, are in school in Haywood County. Anna enjoys gymnastics and for now Clay just likes watching sports — the family members are fans of the Carolina Panthers and UNC-Chapel Hill fans.

His second year coaching the team, Cleaveland also became the athletic director — replacing Mutt DeGraffenreid — and assistant principal position at SMHS. As athletic director, Cleaveland is looking ahead with plans for junior varsity softball, a hope to get middle-school aged students involved with wrestling, and the thought of perhaps a tennis team. It’s an approach that will help build a well-rounded athletics program.

“I just want to take everything, the experiences I have and hopefully make a difference,” Cleaveland said.