Hagen Smith inspired by his father during AVP play

The former “King of the Beach” saved 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 image of Sinjin — sailed a serve too far, Sinjin craned his neck back 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 grin stretched across his face and his applause echoed.

“I wasn’t disguising anything,” Sinjin mentioned.

Anonymity didn’t stand a likelihood as Sinjin watched Hagen and Logan Webber locked in a razor-edged three-setter against the Palm Beach Passion that twice spilled previous regulation.

But as Sinjin rode every rally, Hagen and Webber eked out a slender victory, going 13-15, 18-16 and 18-16. The L.A. males’s duo stays undefeated through 5 weeks of AVP play, serving to offset the L.A. Launch feminine duo’s first loss of the 12 months earlier Saturday. Their mixed data will decide whether or not they win the AVP League common season crown.

Two dozen years eliminated from his closing outing on the sand, Sinjin carved his profession on the chaos of close calls. But Friday, with his son trading kills in a battle that felt prefer it refused to finish, Sinjin was dodging coronary heart assaults.

As the group discovered in, Sinjin leaned back.

“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.”

While Sinjin would possibly’ve winced through every extra-point rally, Hagen soaked it all in — regular under stress.. He could also be “trying his best to live up to” his father, but to hear Sinjin inform it, Hagen had already surpassed the parable.

Sinjin Smith competes in the AVP Santa Barbara Open on 18 Aug. 18, 2001, in Santa Barbara.

(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“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 International Volleyball Hall of Famer, tapped his temple twice when requested where he and his son aligned on the sand. The resemblance, he mentioned, lives in the thoughts — because Hagen’s type has taken on its own form, solid far 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 as long as Hagen might keep in mind, Pauley Pavilion was the lighthouse in the gap — the promised land of his childhood desires. And when he finally walked into the sector, his eyes fixed to a acquainted face.

There was Sinjin, featured on the partitions around the Bruins’ home.

“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 school.

Sinjin performed under Al Scates — the architect of UCLA’s volleyball dynasty and the winningest coach in NCAA males’s volleyball historical past. Under Scates and his 19 national titles, profitable was the annual expectation.

And under Scates’ tutelage, Sinjin bookended his profession with national glory, and flooded his cupboards with particular person accolades — two All-American recognitions, a Most Outstanding Player distinction at the 1979 national 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 Beach Passion’s Phil Dalhausser and Trevor Crabb during AVP League play at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood Saturday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“[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.”

Decades 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 those 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.’”

Other AVP outcomes

In different AVP motion Saturday, Palm Beach Passion’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson handed L.A. Launch’s Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft their first loss, profitable 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.