Parkway North water polo coach Dave Morey walked past Zach Smith, motioned toward Smith with his thumb and said, "he's a beast."
Smith, a Kirkwood junior, did put together a Wolverine-ish kind of season in the water this spring. Unfortunately it came to an end over the weekend in the Missouri Water Polo district tournament when the Pioneers lost to John Burroughs 7-4.
Smith made the preseason procrastinations of him being a player-to-watch more than true. He was one of the top goal scorers in the area all season long.
The Pioneers were a .500 team, but with Smith heading up a junior-laden class, the team's prospects look promising.
"What is really fun is to have four of our starters as underclassmen," Smith said. "We're only really losing one senior this year."
Smith netted over 90 goals and 35 assists this season, nearly doubling his output from last year.
"I haven't really been focusing on stats this year," Smith said. "I know sometimes that is a big thing for players. I had a game where I shot 12 times and put one in, but we ended up winning. I would much rather have a winning team."
Kirkwood has made it to the Missouri Water Polo final four, but never to the finals.
Smith started playing water polo during his eighth grade season and the camaraderie of the Pioneers is part of what drew him to the team.
"I was doing year-round swimming and I hated it," he said. "But I wanted to stick to the water because I was still a pretty good swimmer."
Smith has a strong accurate arm. He pitched and played quarterback when he was younger and that makes up for what he lacks physically.
"I'm by far not one of the biggest players in the water," he said. "I'm probably not the fastest. My swim times are not that great. But I have a pretty good arm and I'm pretty quick. I can get position pretty well and I can get down the pool pretty fast."
