With La Salle’s volleyball team heading toward the postseason in great position, boasting a 19-3 record and ranked 5th in the state, junior Emmerson Smith has been one of the standout players and leaders for the team. As part of our ongoing Athlete of the Week feature, we interviewed Emmerson to get a sense of how the season has been so far.

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With the State Championship coming up, how are you feeling about your team?

• “I am feeling very confident in my team right now because are league champions for the second year in a row; this is a huge achievement and confidence booster going into state. We also just came off a big weekend playing in the West Linn tournament [playing all 6A teams, and beating] Sherwood, Reynolds, and McMinnville. As a team we have grown and improved so much just this season. Playing these bigger teams really improves our game because it makes us play at a faster pace and work harder.”

How do you feel about the games against St. Helens this year?

• “Playing Saint Helens for the first time this year brought back lots of emotions, good and bad, from the championship last year. Losing to them at the beginning of the year was hard because we worked so hard in that game, but it was mainly an eye opener because we were seeing that we needed to step it up and put in the extra time in practices and work 10 times harder if we wanted to beat them and other big teams. So that is exactly what we did. We worked hard in practice to improve our game, we conditioned a lot to stay in shape for long games and gladly all our hard work payed off. When Saint Helens came to our gym [on Oct. 12] it was again another intense 5 games. When we won it was the best feeling in the world knowing that we were just as good as them. That game was a total confidence booster leading into the rest of our league games and state. Going into the Saint Helens game the whole team made a pact to not play for themselves, but for each other on the team and the seniors who graduated last year. Saying that made us play more together as a team and in the end that is what won us the game.”

How do you feel about the community of the program?

• “The community of the program over the past years has improved. We have been trying to do more activities together as a whole program. My favorite thing we did this year was have a scavenger hunt around the school. We were split into groups of 3-4 people with at least one person from each team. We were given a sheet of paper with clues on it. We had to try and figure out the clue, run to where that clue was, and take a selfie with it. My team ended up winning and getting really cool prizes. After the scavenger hunt we had an inner squad scrimmage where we broke up again into teams of 3 to play queen of the court. Our coaches also joined in on playing queen of the court which was a lot of fun because we all really wanted to beat them and they really wanted to beat us. I personally think having a strong community in our volleyball program is very important because we end up spending over half the year together and it makes that time together more enjoyable when everyone gets a long and has fun.”

What are the strongest points of your team?And the weak points?

• “I think overall our offense and defense is pretty strong. We have lots of strong hitters who play smart and can put away the ball. Our defense has improved a ton over the course of the year. At the beginning we were not the best but we have for sure picked it up and now there is almost no ball we could not get. Our serve receive passing I feel like has been strong since the beginning. One thing that we are not fully consistent on is our serving. Missing serves kills the momentum in the game and can make it hard to get it back. Also missing serves gives the other team easy points. Before each game we make it a goal to not miss more than one serve per game. If we do then we usually have a consequence like a set of bleachers. Having these consequences are good because it makes us responsible for our own actions.”

Do you want to play in college? If so, where?

• “My dream ever since I was little was to play college volleyball at a D1 school. Right now I am in the middle of the recruiting process where I have contacted college coaches and they have contacted me. Usually coaches don’t start offering until club season where they come look at you. They don’t recruit a lot during high school season because they are in the middle of their season. I do not know exactly the school I want to go to, but I am looking over in the New York area to be close to my brother, and Arizona area close to family.  My top school right now would have to be American University in Washington DC. I heard it was an amazing school with an awesome volleyball program. It would be 6 hours away from my brother, but West Point and American are in the same league meaning I would travel to Army to play games and during basketball season he would travel to American.”

How long have you been playing volleyball?

• “I started playing volleyball in 3rd grade with CYO through Christ the King. My mom coached my team and me through 8th grade. I started playing club volleyball in 4th grade and I still am. I play club volleyball through a club named PVC (Portland Volleyball Club). The first year at PVC I made the second 12’s team, then my next 2 years I played on the top 12’s team. After that I have made the top team for my age division and this year I am hoping to play on the top 18’s team. Club usually starts at the beginning of November and goes until May or June depending if your team makes it to Nationals. Nationals is a huge tournament where you play teams all around the United States, and they are held in a different spot each year. I have made it to Nationals two times so far. My second year of 12’s my team and I made it and we went to Reno, Nevada. The next year, my last year in 12’s, we made it again and went to Atlanta, Georgia. Playing club also gives you the opportunity to get seen by college coaches. I am hoping to get a scholarship to play volleyball at a D1 school this year or next year. That is my ultimate goal.”

Do you play all year, or only for the high school and club seasons?

• “I do play volleyball all year long because this past summer I got into playing beach volleyball with my best friend Sophie. We played through a club named NP Beach (North Pacific Beach). We practiced at Delta Park about once a week for 2 hours and we played 4 tournaments all summer. My favorite tournament out of the whole summer was the last Seaside tournament. There were so people there watching and a lot of teams playing. Sophie and I played a doubles tournament and a quads tournament. In our doubles tournament we placed 12th out of 40 teams and in our quads tournament we placed 3rd out of 30 teams. I love playing beach because it is way different from court volleyball and it is more challenging running in the sand. I am looking forward to playing beach again with Sophie next summer.”

How do you balance school and volleyball?

• “Balancing school and volleyball is only difficult for me when it is high school season because everyday out of the week you are doing something whether its is a game or practice. Since I know I will not have that much time out of the week to get homework done I try getting it all done over the weekend, at least for the assignments I know. For the homework that gets assigned during the week I usually get it done after practice or if it is a game day I usually get it done on the bus or when we get to the school. On game days I try and get it all done before my game because I know I will not be motivated to get it done after because I will be tired. For club season it is really easy to get homework done during the week, and it is just weekends that are hard because that is when we have all day tournaments. For all day tournaments I plan all my homework out that week and make sure I get it done before my tournament.”

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Be sure to congratulate Emmerson and other members of the team as they head toward postseason play, and check back soon for full coverage of the upcoming games!