Smith Not Left Out Despite His Layoff : After Knee Injury, Lineman Prepares for College Football

It was a play Spencer Smith had run a thousand times at Thousand Oaks High. It was just a play-action pass, he said. As an offensive tackle, Smith’s responsibility was to hold up the defensive tackle to give his quarterback enough time to throw the ball. For the senior Smith, who as a junior was named to the Times All-Valley, All-Ventura County and All-Marmonte League first teams, it would have been just another block in the otherwise uneventful life of a high school lineman.

Except for one big thing: It was the last play of his high school career.

On the other side of the line from Smith was Brian Kelley, South Torrance’s All-Southern Section tackle, who at 6-5, 245, was the most sought-after high school lineman on the West Coast.

It was a dream match-up: 6-3, 221 versus 6-5, 245. Smith versus Kelley. All-This versus All-That.

On the third play of the season, Smith took Kelley out of the play, which allowed quarterback Robb McKinnon to complete the play-action pass.

But then something harrowing happened to Smith. After the whistle had blown on that warm September evening at Thousand Oaks High, Spencer Smith found himself falling to the ground, his legs crossed. Then, a South Torrance defender fell on Smith’s legs. . . . R-i-i-i-i-i-p.

Smith stayed on the ground for a few moments and then jogged slowly off the field to the bench, where he sat with an ice pack on his knee.

“I was going to get up and start jogging the sidelines and then get back in the game,” he said. “But when I pulled the ice off, my knee was filled with blood. A team doctor said right away ‘It’s a ligament.’ It was kind of a freak accident,” Smith said. “But somebody had to do it.”

Smith can laugh about it now, because major college recruiters are still interested. But when he left the field for the hospital Sept. 12, he did not feel like smiling.

“I thought I was history as far as ever playing football again,” Smith said.

His dreams of playing college football had apparently been dashed.

After all, who needs damaged goods? Well, the Nittany Lions maybe.

“I got a call from Penn State. . . .,” Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards said. “Not just from a recruiter but from an assistant coach. He wanted me to send him film from last year.”

For Smith, who had taken the attitude that the last three years had been a waste of time, the news came as a shock and a surprise. “I had been really depressed,” he said. Not only had he beaten the discouraging odds of attracting the eyes of Division I coaches, but he had done it while sidelined with an injury.

Two weeks ago, he was visited by George Wheeler, the defensive coordinator for the University of Utah.

He has received dozens of letters from Division I programs, including USC, Colorado and Washington. Over the Christmas vacation, he will visit Boston College.

It was hard, Smith said, to stand and watch as his team marched undefeated through its league schedule on its way to its second championship. It was even tougher, to be an observer as Canyon knocked the Lancers out of the playoffs in the second round.

“I think our team did a good job,” Smith said. “I knew they would go that far without me. The thing I missed was playing with them after having played with them for four years. I went through withdrawals.”

Smith has already started working out with weights and jogging lightly on a trampoline. His doctor says that he has a 99.9% chance of full recovery. “They attached the ligament to a hamstring somehow and that apparently makes it stronger,” Smith said. His playing weight is 221. During rehabilitation, he dropped to 211. He is up to 215.

For a 17-year-old who thought a freak play had ended his playing days, things are looking better.

“I’m elated,” Smith said. “I think I have come a long way emotionally and physically.”