Aches, pains and joy for 40-year-old man savoring his second chance to play college volleyball

Damon LaSalle keeps the athletic trainers busy at New Jersey City University.

As he gets out of bed, his hamstrings, knees and back give him daily reminders that playing college volleyball can take a toll on the body. He has standing appointments with a chiropractor and acupuncturist in addition to the frequent visits to the training room.

"I have like a professional team taping me and sewing me together," he said, laughing.

Those aches and pains are magnified for LaSalle.

He is, after all, 40 years old.

LaSalle plays middle blocker for the Knights, and most of his teammates weren’t born 20 years ago when he was one of the biggest stars in Division III. His first go in college ended because he was ruled academically ineligible before what would have been his senior season.

With his wife’s encouragement, the stay-at-home dad went back to school so he could honor his late mother’s wish that he earn a degree and to set an example for his three children. He also wanted to put a proper bow on his volleyball career.

The academic part has been no problem. LaSalle is a fire science major who is on the dean’s list with a 3.8 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, and he is on track to graduate this spring.

The volleyball part has been an adventure. He has been limited to 10 of the Knights' first 18 matches because of his assortment of injuries. Not all were volleyball-related. He missed two matches with a classic dad injury - he tweaked his hamstring shoveling snow and the pain migrated to his back.

LaSalle doesn’t jump as high or move as quickly as he once did. The way he describes it, he once could dunk a basketball and now can grab the rim with both hands. The guy can still play a little volleyball, though.

Knights coach Carlo Edra, who played with LaSalle at NJCU from 2004-06, said he’s shown two opposing coaches a photo array of the team and asked them to identify the 40-year-old. Both pointed to someone other than LaSalle.

LaSalle can keep up with his younger teammates, but he’s not the intimidating middle he once was. In 2006, he was national player of the week once and division player of the year in the old North East Collegiate Volleyball Association, which was Division III’s top league. He is NJCU’s career leader in block assists, and in wrapping his fourth season he is on the cusp of becoming the program’s all-time leader in total blocks.

"His resume was right on hall of fame level at this college," said Ira Thor, the school’s former sports information director.

LaSalle’s first stint at NJCU ended suddenly. He was in preseason training during the fall of 2006 when an assistant athletic director pulled him out of practice and told him he was ineligible. His grade-point average was 1.4, the equivalent of a D-plus.

"I was more of an athlete-student instead of a student-athlete," he said. "That happens to a lot of kids, and I let it get too far. I got to a point where when the athlete part wasn't available to me, it wasn't as interesting to be a student.”

So he quit school and, needing a job, asked Edra for help. Edra had graduated the year before and worked at a kitchen cabinet company. Edra recommended LaSalle, and he spent six or seven years there and became warehouse manager. LaSalle ended up marrying the woman who interviewed him for the job, and when Christina and he began a family, he was able to stay home.

The LaSalles live about a 35-minute drive from NJCU’s Jersey City campus and have daughters ages 4 and 6 and a son who’s 8.

When he asked Christina if she would be OK with him going to school and playing volleyball again, she told him it would make her proud if he did.

"That gave me goosebumps," he said. "It made me feel like I could really do this."

LaSalle said his biggest regret was dropping out of school, and his desire to go back grew stronger several years ago when he came across his wife’s diploma from Rutgers.

"I looked at it and I was, 'I want one of these,'" he said. "Carlo and I had a conversation, What if my kids ask me why I don't have one, what would my answer be to them about why I didn't finish?”

LaSalle, Edra and their former teammates have remained close over the years, and during their get-togethers or in their group texts somebody occasionally would suggest LaSalle finish what he started academically and athletically.

In Division III, an athlete gets 10 semesters as a full-time student to play four seasons. There is no running eligibility clock as in Division I, so an athlete could leave school and return in, say, 20 years and pick up where he left off.

In LaSalle’s case, he had played three seasons over seven semesters. To get his grades up and preserve his one remaining season of eligibility, LaSalle could only enroll as a part-time student and take a couple classes per semester.

The slog to eligibility ended last summer. He became a full-time student in the fall and joined the team.

The only volleyball LaSalle had played since 2006 was with Edra in a summer sand volleyball league at a bar.

"I'm not coming off the club court or anything," LaSalle said. "I was coming off the scrap heap, as they say, off the couch."

Actually, LaSalle had stayed fit over the years and that picked up once he decided to pursue college volleyball again. LaSalle knew he would have to earn his playing time and that Edra wouldn’t give him special treatment because of their two-decade friendship.

"So if one of your kids is throwing a temper tantrum and you're late to practice, I've got to make you run, dude,” Edra said he told LaSalle.

Sure enough, LaSalle stopped for coffee on his way to practice one day, had trouble finding a parking spot on campus and showed up late. He had to run laps, do 100 squat lifts, 30 pushups, a three-minute wall sit (a grueling quadriceps exercise) and a three-minute plank.

"There's been plenty of days when I get home from these practices and I'll tell my wife, 'Should I be doing this? Am I going to be OK tomorrow?'" LaSalle said. "Every day I wake up and here I am."

His teammates have embraced him, first calling him "Unc," as in uncle. The nickname morphed to "Big 40" and stuck. Alex Casais, the team captain, said he treated LaSalle like any other teammate when practice started.

"I was not giving him the props," he said. "I couldn't. I had to make sure to he was earning it on the court. He hit one ball and I knew it was over. I knew we were good."

LaSalle said his approach was to blend in with his new teammates. That meant being quiet and doing what everybody else was doing. He said he never expected his teammates to know what he had accomplished 20 years ago, calling it immaterial.

"He came in with a sense of dignity," Casais said. "He stepped on the court, and his head was down and he was going to work. I felt like a lot of the younger guys looked up to him, and that’s where 'Big 40' came from. He was someone working as hard as everyone else, if not harder.”

LaSalle said the game has become faster, players jump higher, systems are more sophisticated and the disparity between the top and bottom teams is smaller.

But if anyone thought LaSalle would embarrass himself, he proved them wrong.

"It was kind of a surprise to everybody that once we all got in the gym in the fall season that he started to compete for the starting spot," Edra said. “The fact he's keeping up with guys that are 21 years old and 20, 18 - it's kind of crazy."

For LaSalle, it’s crazy fun. He said he savors every moment because he realizes he got an almost unimaginable second chance. Recalling 2006, he said, "I played my last game, and I didn’t know it was my last game.”

And now?

"Every practice we finish, it’s one less practice that I have before it's over," he said. "So I don't take that for granted. I don’t take any day for granted at all.”