If toughness is measured by what a player has overcome in order to excel on the field, then Adam Smith, all 210 pounds of him, has earned a place at the front of the line.

Smith suffers from asthma, a condition exacerbated by the extreme heat and humidity that have gripped Maine since the start of summer two-a-days.

“It was pretty bad when I was really young, then it went away until I was around 12, and then it came back,” Smith said. “It’s harder to breathe in the heat. It’s a lot easier to breathe in the colder weather.”

He also played last Friday’s season-opening 22-21 win at Westbrook while wearing a rubber brace to protect the fractured scaphoid bone in his left wrist.

Smith was injured in late June, during the first practice of summer basketball. When it comes to breaks of that specific bone, recovery time of less than three months is darned near considered a medical miracle.

“It’s the worst bone to break in your wrist, pretty much, because it doesn’t get a lot of blood flow,” Mike Hathaway, who is both Leavitt’s basketball and football coach, said. “We had two kids who broke it. The other kid broke it last year and he’s still not playing.”

The senior’s recovery is essential if Leavitt, Class C South champion a year ago, hopes to reach its ultimate goals after a reassignment to Class B.

Smith is the latest in a line of late bloomers for the Hornets’ defense. His nose for the ball drew attention at a down tackle position as a junior, but his career path took a fateful, upward turn when Hathaway moved him to the middle prior to the regional final against Wells.

“We made the decision we’d better suited with (Will) Parkin at tackle and him at nose, and he had kind of a breakout game,” Smith said. “We felt going into the offseason, we always try to build around that guy on defense, and he seemed like the best guy for that. He’s being relied upon a lot more now than he was last year.”

Like Parkin before him, Smith was a soccer player until middle school, when friends talked him into coming over to the gridiron.

Freshman year was devoted to learning the game, and sophomore preseason was hampered by the asthma and other nagging injuries. Smith wound up seeing limited JV time.

“Once I reached high school, that’s when I really started to enjoy it,” Smith said. “We had good coaching. It turned me into a way better player. It’s my favorite sport now.”

Hathaway managed Smith’s asthma by playing him at H-back in specific formations as a junior, an assignment that was limited to roughly a half-dozen offensive plays per game.

This year, he’s starting at left guard, so keeping the asthma under control is a two-way street. Breathe easy, Leavitt fans: So far, Smith has no suffered no ill effects.

“It’s a lot easier to go on one side of the ball and have a break, but it’s been doing pretty good this year, to be honest,” Smith said. “The heat’s been awful. He’ll give me a play or two to breathe, and then I’ll go back out there and do what I need to do.”

And if you think the asthma diagnosis means that Smith shies away from running, think again. He did break his wrist while playing basketball, after all.

Unable to hit the weight room the way he wanted the summer before his senior season, Smith focused on running up the hill adjacent to his house.

Leavitt’s weekly conditioning practice is each Monday, and Smith takes the running seriously.

“I like doing it,” he said, “because I know it’s going to help me in the long run.”

Smith is one of the top run-stuffers in the Campbell Conference. Unlike the nose tackle from central casting, however, you can’t counter his presence by simply running around him.

“You’ve got to have speed and strength (in Leavitt’s system). He’s got some of that. You’ve got to have a guy who can run side to side,” Hathaway said. “We’re not a traditional 3-4, big like Vince Wilfork. We like a guy who’s quicker and can get his reads and move. He’s a good fit for that. He’s high energy, plays with a good motor, that type of guy, and that’s what you want up front.”

Add keen instincts to that list of desired qualities.

Smith has them, which is why he embraced the subtle switch late last season like … well, like a cast fits snugly against a broken thumb.

“I like it because I can kind of go both ways. I’m not on one side of the field. I can see everything and make the reads,” Smith said. “Use my speed and hands, try to get their hands off me and hit them low.”

Tough thinking from a tough kid.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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