OUT of all the darkness, here comes Ian Smart, running to daylight.

Tucked under his arm, along with a degree in physical education, is a sweet childhood dream that lesser young men would have fumbled long ago.

The NFL Draft is five days away and Ian Smart can hardly sleep.

Ian Smart is a 5-foot-71/2, 192-pound running back from C.W. Post who is dying to write the kind of fairy tale story that Wayne Chrebet has written from Hofstra to the Jets. Only his has come not against SOME odds, but against ALL odds.

“I’ve been through a lot,” Smart is saying at Pratt Recreation Center on the old Brookville, L.I., campus. “When I was about five, I saw my father shoot my mother. We were getting ready to go on a family trip [back to his native Jamaica] and they got into a big argument and I heard like a big bang, and I just saw my mother laying there on the ground, and she was bleeding. It wasn’t anything serious ’cause she was shot in the leg.”

His mother Joyceline, and father Herbert, separated. She has worked two jobs as a nurse’s aide for the elderly to raise five children. “When I was about 15, I remember he had a Fourth of July party,” Smart said. “On my way back home from summer school, like the next day, I remember my mother telling us like, she says, ‘Your father’s been murdered.’ We thought it was a joke at first. So later on that night she put us in a car and she brought us over to his house where the body was found at. We stayed there the whole night along with the rest of the family on his side.”

What happened? “Nobody knows what happened. Until this day I still don’t know what happened.”

That was eight years ago. “Then, my senior year in high school, my house [in North Babylon] burned down,” Smart said.

He had spent the night at a friend’s house. “From what my mother told me, she had a candle lit and she was watching TV and then she fell asleep,” Smart said.

Luckily, everyone escaped. Smart’s track coach, Kurt Langer, called influential people in town. “They were able to find my mother a house so she could stay [in Central Islip] until she got herself together,” Smart said.

Smart, shellshocked, scrapped plans to go to college so he could help his mother. Langer convinced him to attend school close to home. Smart was accepted into the HEOP (High Education Opportunity Program), and here he is, knocking on the NFL’s door.

“A lot of people told me I wasn’t gonna make it ’cause I was too small,” Smart said. “To me, that’s like feeding fuel to the fire.”

He loves Emmitt Smith. “Even though I’m 5-7, I play like I’m 6-2,” Smart says. “I have a big heart. I’m not afraid to go off tackle, and I’m not afraid to run up the middle.”

He has 4.41 speed and a 38-inch vertical jump and good hands. He is the NCAA all-time leader in touchdowns (95) and scoring (570 points) and fourth with 6,647 rushing yards. Attention Jets: He returns kickoffs. His agent, Lee Southren, reports that Jets special teams guru Mike Westhoff is aware of Smart.

“I’m pretty much a Chad Morton,” Smart says. “If the Jets are looking for another Chad Morton, they have one right here. They just have to look in their own backyard to find one.”

You bet Smart, 23, has been to Jets training camp. One day he found rosary beads at Hofstra. “I picked ’em up, and ever since then I held on to ’em,” Smart said.

He would watch the running backs, of course, but couldn’t help but notice Chrebet. “He has heart,” Smart said. “He’s a player. He came from like nowhere.”

So did Ian Smart. When he was young and rebellious, his mother kicked him out of the house. Smart slept in an ’85 Mustang he bought from a friend for $500 and kept in the driveway until he was old enough to drive it. Now he can’t wait to buy his mother a new house. All he wants is a chance. No one deserves one more.

RECORD RUNNER

C.W. Post running back Ian Smart hopes to make the tough leap from NCAA Division II to an NFL Draft pick. The 5-7 ½, 192-pound Smart has the credentials: he’s the all-time NCAA leader in touchdowns (95) and scoring (570 points) and is fourth all-time in rushing yardage (6,647).

Smart’s career rushing stats

Year Att. Yds. TD

1999 143 926 11

2000 139 1162 20

2001 308 2536 33

2002 287 2023 30

Total 877 6647 *94

* Smart had one receiving TD