OrTre Smith’s mom OK with son choosing South Carolina

Although Wando wide receiver OrTre Smith’s mother was a student-athlete at Clemson, she has no problem with her son’s commitment to South Carolina.

Tashia Greene played volleyball at Clemson from 1989-1990, and her experiences as a highly recruited Division I athlete helped Smith prepare for his own.

“I think that was the foundation. That laid the foundation, just knowing the recruitment process and knowing what to expect,” Greene said. “It’s changed a bit since I’ve been there, but for the main part it was good as far as talking to the coaches and asking the questions that needed to be asked.”

Greene and Smith spent several months going through the recruitment process together, and were very thorough in their visits to Smith’s top schools. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound wide receiver from Wando High visited USC more than four times before publicly committing Sunday. Smith said his mother gave him different pieces of advice throughout the process.

“For OrTre, family is very important,” Greene said. “I always tell him we have to make sure whoever or wherever you go that that person is sincere and he means what he says.”

Smith is the fifth consecutive four-star commitment for coach Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks. Greene’s hopeful he’ll be able to make an immediate impact when he enrolls early in January.

“Tre is a workhorse,” Greene said. “As far as athletically, he’s going in January. He’s going to get a chance to get the playbook, go through spring training and the spring game maybe, so he’s going to be ahead of the game. If he was anything like he was here at Wando, then hey, that’ll be a blessing.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "OrTre Smith’s mom OK with son choosing South Carolina."