By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When AJ Smith arrived on Grounds, he knew nothing about the University of Virginia’s rivalry with Virginia Tech. No surprise there. Smith, a native of Denmark, had been in the United States for only a year, and he spent that at a junior college in Texas.
Two-plus years later, after hearing countless renditions of the Good Old Song and facing the Hokies twice on the soccer field, Smith has a greater appreciation for the mutual disdain between these ACC schools.
“I love it,” Smith said. “I just think it gets you up for the game. And who doesn't love to play a rivalry game? A lot of people love watching it, and you have so much to prove.”
The next installment in a series that UVA leads 44-6-7 comes Friday night. At 8 o’clock, in a game to air on ACC Network, the Wahoos (4-4-1, 2-1) host the Hokies (5-3-1, 2-1) at Klöckner Stadium.
Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch gets up for these Commonwealth Clash matches, too. “I grew up playing those guys,” said Gelnovatch, who was an All-America forward for Bruce Arena at UVA.
A fourth-year forward, Smith leads the Cavaliers with five goals this season and also has an assist. With 11 points, he’s tied with Brendan Lambe for the team lead.
Smith, who wears jersey No. 9, is listed at 6-foot-4, 189 pounds, but “he’s not 6-4,” Gelnovatch said. “He’s every bit of 6-5. He’s massive, and he’s athletic, and he’s got technique and skill.”
In Denmark, Smith’s hometown is Høje-Taastrup, about 15 miles west of Copenhagen. After graduating from high school, he took a gap year during which he worked for SIXT, a car rental company, while playing for a third-division soccer club. He’d been accepted at architecture school and might have followed that path had he not been contacted by an agency that places European soccer players with U.S. college programs.
“At first, I was like, ‘There's no way, what am I going to do in the States? I like my life here at home,’ ” Smith recalled. The agency kept calling and texting him, however, and Smith decided to explore that option. “It sounded really interesting, so I talked to my parents about it, and they were like, ‘Whatever you're comfortable with, we support you.’ ”
He landed at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas.
“I t was definitely a big culture shock,” Smith said, “coming from a small, small country like Denmark to a big state like Texas, where everything is so Southern.”
He smiled. “I was expecting like cowboys and stuff like that, because obviously that's what you see in the movies. Every time I told my friends, ‘Yeah, I'm going to Texas,’ they were like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna be with the cowboys’ or ‘You're gonna be in the country.’ But I had a great time there.”
Tyler is a powerhouse in men’s soccer. The Apaches have won six National Junior College Athletic Association titles in that sport and were national runners-up in 2023. Smith totaled 18 goals and six assists that season and attracted the interest of multiple Division I programs, including Virginia.
In March 2024, the Cavaliers’ associate head coach, Matt Chulis, flew to Texas to see Smith play for Tyler in a spring game.
“I don't remember who it was against, but [Smith’s performance] wasn't convincing,” Gelnovatch said. “But Chulus was like, ‘It’s hard to say no to this profile.’ ”
Smith said: “It wasn't my best game at all, but they still trusted me, and I'm really appreciative that they did that, because Coach Chulis flew all the way from Virginia to Texas to watch.”
About a week later, Smith visited Charlottesville and fell in love with the school and the soccer program. He committed before heading back to Texas.
“There were other schools that I was talking to as well, but I just think Virginia had the perfect fit for me,” Smith said.