Smith, the underrated lynchpin who can help ZAKSA seal their third title in a row

At 37 years old, David Smith has truly been an underrated star throughout the most part of his career, despite boasting some excellent results both for club and country. In particular, at the zenith of his career, the American middle blocker has been nothing short of superb, helping his current side, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, to win the CEV Champions League | Men two times in a row, in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons.

Now, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle are back in the SuperFinals, and they are aiming to end this season on a high once again, in Turin, adding their third title in a row, a feature sealed in the past 20 years only by Itas Trentino and Zenit Kazan.

While Aleksander Śliwka, Łukasz Kaczmarek and Bartosz Bednorz are undoubtedly the top scorers of the team and might be usually the names pronounced whenever the talk about the big hitters of a team as star-studded as ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle comes up, Smith has definitely been one of the key cogs in the well-oiled machine that has dominated European volleyball over the last few years.

Numbers do not usually tell the whole story, but the 37-year-old American blocker has been once again superb, despite featuring only on the 13th place in the top blocker standings this season in the European premium competition, with 16 blocks over 10 games and 39 sets played for the Polish powerhouse.

But his average of 0.41 blocks per set sits in the top 10 in the standings, considering the players which have featured in a minimum of 30 sets this season, therefore Smith is still a key asset for his side. Considering his experience and penchant of rising to the occasion in crucial matches, like the one against domestic rivals Jastrzębski Węgiel in this year’s SuperFinals, Smith is truly an underrated star.

Take, for example, last year’s SuperFinals game against Itas Trentino, where he was the third best scorer in his team, with nine points. Or the one from two seasons ago, when Smith had nine points and added two blocks in an excellent all-round performance.

The 37-year-old American is also an outstanding server, with 13 aces this season, enough for the 11th place in the CEV Champions League | Men, adding another dimension to his all-round game.

While stars might take the eyes of the fans and the plaudits of the experts, Smith is the key lynchpin of this ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, which is aiming to deliver their third consecutive title in the European premium competition, after conceding three consecutive losses against rivals Jastrzębski Węgiel in the Polish PlusLiga.