In five years, Hawaii’s 6-foot-9 opposite Rado Parapunov goes from a “doughy” athlete to the national Player of the Year

COLUMBUS, Ohio >> There was a lot to like when Charlie Wade first started tracking Rado Parapunov’s exploits as a national-level prospect in Bulgaria.

“Six-nine left-handed hammer. Pretty good place to start,” Wade said of his first impressions of Parapunov in the recruiting process.

“He was a little doughy back then, but he’s worked hard, he got himself in good shape,” the Hawaii men’s volleyball coach added with a smile.

Their conversations would ultimately convince Parapunov to trek across the globe to pursue a collegiate volleyball career in Hawaii. Though five years in Manoa, Parapunov worked his way into being recognized as the top collegiate men’s volleyball player in the country.

“His development as a player and as a young man is really impressive and couldn’t be more proud of him,” Wade said after Parapunov was named the AVCA National Player of the Year on Wednesday.

Parapunov is the third UH player honored as the National Player of the Year in the 30-year history of the award, joining Yuval Katz (who shared the award with Stein Metzger in 1996) and two-time winner Costas Theocharidis (2002 and ’03).

Parapunov ranks third in the nation with 4.41 kills per set with a .340 hitting percentage and was named an AVCA first-team All-American for the third time on Monday. He also won the AVCA’s Player of the Week award three times this season and picked up his second Big West Player of the Year award last week.

He put down a season-high 27 kills in a five-set win over Long Beach State on April 3 and has posted double-figure kills in 22 consecutive matches.

“He’s been in the conversation as the best player in America for virtually all of his career, certainly the last three years,” Wade said. “But I think he would trade all of the well-earned individual accolades that he has for a championship here this week.”

For his part, Parapunov deferred credit to his Rainbow Warrior teammates after top-seeded UH completed practice on Wednesday in advance of today’s NCAA tournament semifinal match against UC Santa Barbara.

“I don’t think it’s significant to me personally,” Parapunov said in a Zoom press conference. “We’re playing a team sport and the award goes to the whole team. Everybody has contributed as much as they can and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

While spreading the credit for his award, Parapunov shouldered responsibility for the Warriors’ loss to UC San Diego in the Big West tournament semifinals on April 23 at SimpliFi Arena. Parapunov had 16 kills with a season-high 13 errors, hitting .067 in his final home match.

The loss didn’t hurt UH (15-1) in the NCAA bracket nor Parapunov’s standing in the postseason awards voting, and he enters today’s match “extremely motivated.”

“I think I’m the reason we didn’t play that Saturday (in the Big West final),” he said. “I came here with a different mindset coming into a game against an opponent that is top-three in the nation. Just the emotions are different.”

More awards for UH

Along with the AVCA award, Parapunov picked up two more honors from Off the Block, the nation’s leading men’s volleyball web site. Parapunov won the Bryan Ivie Award as the nation’s best opposite and the Nicolas Szerszen Award as the top non-U.S. born player.

UH’s Gage Worsley won the Erik Shoji Award (best libero) and the Steve Shondell Award (best passer). Warrior senior Patrick Gasman won the Ryan Millar Award as the top middle attacker.