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Rado Parapunov collected yet another accolade in a season of giving back.
For the Hawaii senior, the performances that earned him a second straight Big West men’s volleyball Player of the Year award represented an expression of gratitude to those who supported the Rainbow Warriors along the way, including those who weren’t able to watch them in person this season.
“I am just doing my best to represent University of Hawaii as much as I can and make everybody happy that’s supporting us just to show them how much I appreciate (them), and how thankful I am,” Parapunov said after the Big West’s major awards were announced on Tuesday.
“I cannot give them hugs this year, only through Zoom, unfortunately. So the only way to show appreciation is on the court, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Big West coaches voted Parapunov to the repeat honor, making him the first Rainbow Warrior to earn consecutive conference Player of the Year awards and the second to win two such honors, joining Costas Theocharidis, who was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s top player in 2001 and ’03.
Upon first making the trip from Bulgaria to Manoa as a freshman, Parapunov said he wasn’t aware of the individual awards and “never really understood the All-American thing until probably my junior year.”
“But I’ve said this many times, we are not here for those awards. We’re here for the big things,” Parapunov said.
A shot at the season’s biggest prize still beckons as the No. 1 Warriors prepare for next week’s trip to Columbus, Ohio, for the NCAA championships, where UH (15-1) will be the top seed in the seven-team bracket.
Parapunov was named the BWC Player of the Year after the 2020 season was cut short prior to conference play. One of three seniors who decided to return for another run at a title, Parapunov helped lead the Warriors to an undefeated regular season.
Along the way, he collected three AVCA National Player of the Week and five Big West Player of the Week awards. Last week, he was selected to the All-Big West first team for the third straight year.
The 6-foot-9 opposite leads the conference with 4.41 kills per set with a .340 hitting percentage. He also ranks fifth in blocks per set (0.90), sixth in aces per set (0.32) and 12th in digs per set (1.56). He has reached double figures in kills in 22 consecutive matches.
But if he had a vote, “the person who should be sitting here right now is (UH middle blocker) Pat Gasman,” Parapunov said of his fellow senior who leads the conference in hitting percentage (.500) and ranks second in blocks per set (1.26).
“I think he has been the most consistent player on our team and has not had up and downs. If I personally had to pick who has to be the best player this year for the Big West, I would say him.”
Along with Parapunov’s award, the conference coaches voted Long Beach State outside hitter Clarke Godbold the Big West Freshman of the Year. The Big West’s Coach of the Year award went to UC Santa Barbara’s Rick McLaughlin for the second straight year.
McLaughlin led the Gauchos to their first Big West tournament title last week at SimpliFi Arena and UCSB will make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011 next week in Ohio.
Asked if he thought UH coach Charlie Wade — who led the Warriors to the program’s first outright regular-season title — should have won the award, Parapunov simply replied, “of course.”
UH fell short in its bid to add the tournament championship to the regular-season title with a semifinal loss to UC San Diego last Friday. The Warriors were still awarded the top seed in the NCAA tournament on Sunday and depart next week for their opportunity at a national title.
“I still can’t get over it,” Parapunov said. “But what happened happened and the only thing we can do it just learn from it, go as far as we can and do our best.”
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