The previous “King of the Beach” stored his crown tucked away Saturday evening.
Clad in denim denims and a plain white shirt, Sinjin Smith hovered on the sidelines of the sand.
When Hagen Smith — the son and spitting picture of Sinjin — sailed a serve too far, Sinjin craned his neck again and clenched his jaws.
“On the court, he tells me to serve short, and I never listen,” Hagen mentioned.
And when Hagen — a UCLA alum like his father — uncorked a spike that thudded into the sand untouched, Sinjin’s arm sliced the air as a smile stretched throughout his face and his applause echoed.
“I wasn’t disguising anything,” Sinjin mentioned.
Anonymity didn’t stand an opportunity as Sinjin watched Hagen and Logan Webber locked in a razor-edged three-setter towards the Palm Seashore Ardour that twice spilled previous regulation.
However as Sinjin rode each rally, Hagen and Webber eked out a slim victory, going 13-15, 18-16 and 18-16. The L.A. males’s duo stays undefeated via 5 weeks of AVP play, serving to offset the L.A. Launch feminine duo’s first lack of the yr earlier Saturday. Their mixed information will decide whether or not they win the AVP League common season crown.
L.A. Launch’s Hagen Smith spikes the ball as Logan Webber watches throughout their win over Palm Seashore Ardour’s Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb on the Intuit Dome on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions)
Two dozen years faraway from his ultimate outing on the sand, Sinjin carved his profession on the chaos of shut calls. However Friday, together with his son buying and selling kills in a battle that felt prefer it refused to finish, Sinjin was dodging coronary heart assaults.
As the gang discovered in, Sinjin leaned again.
“It’s nerve wracking to watch him — you couldn’t get a better match for the fans, but I hated it,” Sinjin mentioned. “I want to win in two and go home.”
Whereas Sinjin may’ve winced via each extra-point rally, Hagen soaked all of it in — regular underneath strain.. He could also be “trying his best to live up to” his father, however to listen to Sinjin inform it, Hagen had already surpassed the parable.
Sinjin Smith competes within the AVP Santa Barbara Open on 18 Aug. 18, 2001, in Santa Barbara.
(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
“He’s an unbelievable resource to me. I’ll ask him at like, midnight, ‘Hey, can you come out in the morning and coach me?’ He’s there,” Hagen mentioned of Sinjin. “I’ve modeled my game after him, through and through. If I can be as anything like him as a player, I’m honored.”
Sinjin marveled at Hagen with the awe of a fan.
“He’s his own person. He’s playing for himself, trust me,” Sinjin mentioned. “He may be wanting to prove something to me, I don’t know, but he’s done so much more than I ever expected. He’s so fun to watch — the fact that he’s my son, that’s just icing on the cake.”
Sinjin, the UCLA and Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Famer, tapped his temple twice when requested the place he and his son aligned on the sand. The resemblance, he mentioned, lives within the thoughts — as a result of Hagen’s type has taken by itself form, solid removed from his father’s shadow.
“He jumps and he’s powerful and he moves in the sand,” Sinjin mentioned. “I did everything pretty well, which was my strength, but he really excels in — for one, attacking the ball, he hits the ball harder and more explosively when he attacks than I ever was.”
For so long as Hagen may bear in mind, Pauley Pavilion was the lighthouse within the distance — the promised land of his childhood goals. And when he lastly walked into the world, his eyes fastened to a well-recognized face.
There was Sinjin, featured on the partitions across the Bruins’ house.
“Getting to see that, it’s like, ‘Ah, this is home to me. I’ve got dad helping me out, I’ve got dad watching over me. Luckily I got to wear his number that was retired and that felt awesome,” mentioned Hagen, who wore his father’s No. 22 jersey in faculty.
Sinjin performed underneath Al Scates — the architect of UCLA’s volleyball dynasty and the winningest coach in NCAA males’s volleyball historical past. Below Scates and his 19 nationwide titles, successful was the annual expectation.
And underneath Scates’ tutelage, Sinjin bookended his profession with nationwide glory, and flooded his cupboards with particular person accolades — two All-American recognitions, a Most Excellent Participant distinction on the 1979 nationwide championship and a stalwart of the historic undefeated 1979 squad.
L.A. Launch’s Hagen Smith, left, and Logan Webber, proper, rejoice with L.A. Launch teammate Terese Cannon after Smith and Webber beat Palm Seashore Ardour’s Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb throughout AVP League play on the Intuit Dome in Inglewood Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions)
“[Scates] was the best coach of all time in the United States,” Sinjin mentioned. “Al had a knack for picking players that had more than just a physical game. They had a mental game as well. … There’s so many of them that Al trained and went on to be the best of the very best in either beach or indoors.”
Many years later, Hagen was coached by Scates’ protege John Speraw.
After rattling off the names of former teammates and sand-side companions, Sinjin paused, seemingly struck by a sample he couldn’t ignore: “God,” he mentioned, “there’s a lot of UCLA legends going around.”
Two of these share the identical final identify.
“[Sinjin] tried to get me into tennis,” Hagen mentioned, “and I was like, ‘Dad, I just want to play volleyball. I just want to be like you.’”
Different AVP outcomes
In different AVP motion Saturday, Palm Seashore Ardour’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson handed L.A. Launch’s Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft their first loss, successful 12-15, 15-6, 15-10.
San Diego Smash’s Devon Newberry and Geena Urango defeated Miami Mayhem’s Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw 15-10, 15-11.
And San Diego Smash’s Chase Budinger and Miles Evans beat Miami Mayhem’s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw 11-15, 15-11, 15-13.
