Smith retires from playing UCLA volleyball

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Parker Smith, whose leaping ability made him a potential starter, said he's now "physically unable to practice." UCLA photo Let us know Homegrown Report chronicles feats of former Hawai'i high school athletes here and away. If you know of any deserving of recognition, give us their names, high schools and graduation years, colleges and sports. E-mail us or contact Leila Wai at 535-2457. Homegrown Report appears every Wednesday in The Honolulu Advertiser.

Now, the Advertiser's 1999 State Player of the Year can't even do that.

Smith, a 2000 graduate of Punahou School from Honolulu, decided last month to take a medical retirement from college volleyball because of chronic patella tendinitis.

"My knees were giving me big problems," the 6-foot-4 outside hitter said. "I had to get cortisone shots, and I took a couple of months off, but it was worse than before, so I figured there was nothing I could do."

The redshirt junior, who said he was "physically unable to practice," will remain on scholarship.

Smith received the pain-killing shots twice — in the beginning and end of last summer — but they wore off within a week when he returned to fall camp.

"He would just get to a spot where he was really playing, and then the pain would get too great," UCLA coach Al Scates said. "It was too much for him to compete at the level we needed him to compete at."

Smith said that trainers gave him the option of rehabbing and getting more cortisone shots in hopes of returning next season, but he said the effects of the shots would have taken too much of a toll on his knees.

"It damages your ligaments," he said. "It covers up the pain, but the injury is the same, and you can't feel what you are doing to it."

He said the shots are supposed to last for months, "but when it wears off you can feel that you've been playing on an injury the entire time."

Scates said that he could tell Smith was suffering.

"He had a lot of trouble just getting up and walking in the morning," Scates said. "It was just something he couldn't endure anymore."

Smith's absence is a loss for the Bruins, ranked No. 3 in this week's USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association top-15 poll.

"If he was able to practice all the time, he would have started," Scates said. "He jumps so high, he could have played opposite."

Smith said he still is considered part of the team and receives the same benefits: enrollment in school, tickets to matches, class tutoring. "All the same stuff that you would before," he said.

Smith was a two-time Advertiser All-State first-team selection. It was during this time when his knees first started bothering him.

Smith played in 11 matches in his two-year collegiate career, with 41 kills in 106 attempts, averaging 1.3 kills per game and a .122 hitting percentage. He had 12 blocks and 17 digs in 31 games.

His freshman season was shortened because he broke his thumb and pinkie on his right hand. He was restricted from playing much of his sophomore season because of his knees, and he redshirted last year to try to heal.

Smith, who will graduate in 2005 with a degree in political science, said he hopes to return to playing volleyball this summer. But it will have to be beach volleyball, "because it is easier on your knees and pretty fun," he said.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.