SPORTS & MORE: SARALYN SMITH GOES FROM KWHS TO PRO VOLLEYBALL

Saralyn Smith only lived in Key West for three years, but that was long enough to leave her mark in high school basketball and volleyball. Her father, Jim Smith, was group commander of the Coast Guard when she was an eighth grader at Horace O’Bryant and a freshman and sophomore at Key West High School. 

Playing basketball for Coach Glenwood Lopez, she set the single-game scoring record at that time of 32 points in her third game of her sophomore season. Smith led all county players in scoring that season with an average of 18.4 points – five better than any other player. She averaged 11.3 rebounds and was named County Player of the Year. 

Smith was also named All-County in volleyball under Coach Dee Downey.

 “I was beginning my love for volleyball then,” she said this week from her home in Orange County, California. “I think I was among the best (at Key West), but I was playing with girls who had been playing for years.” 

When her father (with mother Marilyn) was reassigned and became assistant superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, Saralyn moved from Key West to Falmouth, Massachusetts, where she graduated high school in 1996. She continued playing basketball, scoring 1,000 points, and volleyball at Falmouth and was a good enough basketball player, at 6 foot, 2 inches, to receive a scholarship to the University of Hartford. 

At Hartford, she played both sports her freshman and sophomore years, but by then she’d been thoroughly bitten by the volleyball bug. Plus, basketball was becoming tough on her knees. She played volleyball exclusively as she finished her bachelor’s degree. Then she played a fifth year as she completed her master’s degree. She set the school record for blocks in a game and career while also maintaining a high academic average. 

“I was falling in love with beach volleyball,” she recalled. So she headed to California for an opportunity to play in the Association of Volleyball Professionals. “I also had an office job. You couldn’t live just on what you could make playing volleyball.” That amount was $53,000 for her career. She finished as high as ninth 12 times.

She also played for the United States’ national team in Mexico, Nicaraugua, Guatemala and Monaco, winning silver and bronze medals.

The tour itself went bankrupt in July 2010, as Smith completed her ninth season. “I was very disappointed,” she said. “I was looking forward to the start of the next season. I had a new partner in Raquel Ferreira from Brazil, who had been the Rookie of the Year.” 

She had been working part time for Big Video Game, but moved to Blizzard Entertainment, where she worked for 10 years until three months ago when she started working for herself in digital marketing. 

Six years ago, she married J. Allen Brack and the couple combined their last names into one: Bracksmith. “That’s what our friends know us as. Professionally, I’m still Saralyn Smith.” And she’s listed as being from Key West, Florida, where her parents now live once again in their semi-retirement. 

“I still visit Key West with my parents there and Islamorada, where my brother, Cale, lives,” she said. 

Key West will always be where her impressive volleyball career began. 

DO YOU BELIEVE IT? The Saturday-Sunday quartet of National Football League playoff games may well have been the most exciting playoff weekend on record. Three games ended on field goals, while the fourth and most exciting ended stretched into overtime after a Kansas City field goal tied things up with the Buffalo Bills. Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes then ran and passed down the field for their 42-36 overtime victory. It concluded a brilliant duel between Mahomes, whose team was favored by 1½ points, and Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen. 

Commentators I heard have complained about only the Chiefs getting the ball in the sudden-death overtime. Also that the Bills defense couldn’t stop Mahomes with only 13 seconds left in regulation and that the final regulation kickoff wasn’t kicked onto the field, so some time might have come off those 13 seconds. 

Kansas City will now host the Cincinnati Bengals at 3 p.m., Sunday (CBS) as 7½-point favorites. The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play at 6:30 p.m., also on Sunday (FOX). Winners will meet in the Super Bowl, at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 13 (NBC). 

In the other American Football Conference game, the Bengals, four-point underdogs, nipped the Tennessee Titans and the return of rusher Derrick Henry, 19-16, with the 52-yard field goal by Evan McPherson and the quarterbacking by second-year player Joe Burrow. 

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and kicker Matthew Gay’s 30-yard, last second field goal led to a 30-27 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and its star quarterback Tom Brady, who were favored by 2.5 points, in one National Conference game.

In the other NFC game, it was San Francisco 13, Green Bay 10, on a 45-yard field goal by Robbie Gould as time expired. So, lightly regarded quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has his team in the final four, albeit a 3½-point underdog to the Rams. But the 49ers were 5.5-point underdogs to the Packers and their QB Aaron Rodgers.

 So, why not? Why not, any of the four?

Veteran sports columnist Ralph Morrow says the only sport he doesn’t follow is cricket. That leaves plenty of others to fill his time.