Mark Smith grew up in Canada and learned to play hockey on a frozen pond near Eyebrow, Saskatchewan. As he grew up playing against other local farming community teams, he fell in love with the fast pace, precision, skill, and team camaraderie that the game boasts. He logged many hours playing with his older brother on out door rinks, as well as in their basement, where they put up boards, nets, and made a shooting gallery when it was too cold to go outside.

When Mark was 15 he moved away from his home to play for the Nipawin Hawks (SJHL), he played 1 year there and then moved on to play 4 years for the Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL), which led him to a WHL championship and to a trip to the memorial cup finals in 1997. This was a very important year for Mark because his play was noticed by many NHL teams, and was later rewarded by the San Jose Sharks, who drafted him in the 9th round, 216th overall that year.

Mark went on to play 7 seasons with the Sharks, and 1 season with the Calgary flames, where an injury would force him into an early retirement. He was known for his strong skating skills, tough aggressive play, as well as a penalty kill and powerplay specialist.

After moving back to San Francisco, Mark has started coaching for the San Francisco Sabercats and the San Jose Jr Sharks to help grow this wonderful game in the bay area, as well as pass on his knowledge and learnings to other kids that share the same dreams he had when he was young. He also helps coach a facilitate the “Little Sharks – Learn to Play Program”, and can be seen and heard from time to time on San Jose Sharks broadcasts along side Dan Rusanowsky on the radio or in NBC Sports California studios doing in-game analysis. He also currently works full time as Senior Web Developer for PagerDuty.