Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Liam Cox-Smith, a forward from Minot, N.D., who has played in Colorado and Canada, visited Liberty Hockey's Select Camp last week. (Submitted photos)
Forward recruit from Minot, N.D., sets sights on leading DI Flames to first national championship
5/3/2024 8:32:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
Liam Cox-Smith, who can play center or wing, will be a scoring threat on the Flames' young and hungry front lines starting this fall.
Liam Cox-Smith, the sixth forward in Liberty University's ACHA Division I men's hockey recruiting class for this fall, may be the first player to come to Liberty from Minot, N.D., home of one of the Flames' biggest rivals, Minot State, which eliminated them from the 2021 and 2023 National Championship semifinals.
Cox-Smith, who can play left wing or center, was a teammate of rising junior Liberty defenseman Laz Kaebel on the National Collegiate Development Conference's Philadelphia Hockey Club in 2021-22, netting 12 goals and 16 assists in 41 contests.
"In my heart, I knew I didn't really want to go to school in Minot, where I lived all the way up until I was 14 before I moved to Colorado and played AAA hockey," he said, noting that after also playing basketball and football growing up, he focused on hockey upon leaving Minot and playing in Canada. "I feel like playing Junior hockey helped me excel in my game, and it helped me get better after moving away from home."
In 2020-21, Cox-Smith scored 19 goals and set up 29 others with the Rocky Mountain (Colo.) Roughriders 18U AAA program. In 2022-23, Cox-Smith scored 6 goals and added 12 assists in 38 games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Sherwood Park Crusaders.
He spent most of this past season with the Melville Millionaires in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, scoring 9 goals and distributing 14 assists in 30 games, before joining the Fort McMurray Oil Barons for their final 12 games in the AJHL.
"Liam Cox-Smith is going to help us out on the offensive side of things," Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. "He's going to make an impact for sure. He sees the ice very well and is going to help us grow the forward group. I really like the whole group that we have. It is going to be a strong group of forwards coming in, and I am really looking forward to getting things going."
Cox-Smith visited Lynchburg, Va., for the first time when he participated in the Flames' Select Camp last week at the LaHaye Ice Center.
"It was really good," he said. "I really enjoyed my time. The group of boys in the locker room and the coaches were very respectful and I was treated very well."
Recruited by a few NCAA Division I programs out of high school, Cox-Smith said Liberty is the next best thing.
"With how the players get treated, they are like Division I players on the campus, and every facility they have is as good as any in the NCAA," he said.
Cox-Smith, the son of a high school assistant principal, Dr. Travis Smith, and gym teacher, Sara Smith, who taught him through elementary school, plans to pursue a B.S. in Business Finance at Liberty.
He said he would not have decided to join the Flames if he didn't think he could help lead them to their first ACHA DI national championship.
"I'm coming to Liberty to win championships," Cox-Smith said. "I am hoping we can change that and get some banners. I want to be an offensive threat and put up as many points as we can to hopefully win. I do see them being in the mix, 100 percent. I think that we have the tools to accomplish that."
He said his offensive playmaking and goal-scoring abilities are his greatest strengths.
"I like scoring the goals," Cox-Smith said. "Just the skating on the ice, with the wind hitting your face, getting the puck in the back of the net, there's no better feeling," Cox-Smith said, noting being around the right teammates makes it all the sweeter. "It is easy to perform at your best because you're playing for your brother."
He said the spiritual environment he anticipates being surrounded by at Liberty was as important to him as the athletic atmosphere.
"It was 50-50," Cox-Smith said. "The hockey program has a lot to offer and I think I can grow spiritually. I am a faithful (believer) and come from a faithful family, so it was a selling point. Going to Liberty will be a great opportunity for me to grow into a better person with my faith and my spiritual walk, and to grow into a better hockey player."
He looks forward to the possibility of traveling overseas with his new teammates on a sports outreach trip, as the Flames have to Finland twice in the past five years.
"I am 100 percent interested in that, ready to help people around the world, and to spread the faith," Cox-Smith said. "I am planning to go play some European professional hockey, and with what Liberty has to offer, I'll be able to achieve that."
He has shown leadership potential after serving as a captain of his AAA teams in Colorado, before becoming more of a role player, and "glue guy," in the AJHL and SJHL.
"I am pretty easy to get along with, and coming in as a freshman, I am not going to ruffle any feathers, though I might say something to kick up the boys and kick them into gear to get them going," Cox-Smith said.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Megan Lovelace/Club Sports Assistant Director of Social Media & Creative Content
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