Basketball, NFL and rugby player Hayden Smith dreams of playing for the Penrith Panthers

HAYDEN Smith has played US college basketball, 19 rugby Tests and even had a season in the NFL. But he dreams of playing for the Penrith Panthers

Hayden Smith is in the sights of the Queensland Reds but dreamt of playing for the Penrit

HAYDEN Smith has played US college basketball, 19 rugby Tests and even had a season with the New York Jets in the NFL.

But Smith, one of Australia’s best all-round athletes, still has a box to tick on his bucket list: running out for the Panthers Penrith in the NRL.

At 29, the 201cm, 116kg giant knows time is against him achieving his childhood dream but the amazing journey the 29-year-old has taken over the past decade has taught him to never say never.

Born in Penrith into what he terms a “cricket family”, Smith was on track for a career as a professional basketballer before a game of social rugby in the US sent him in a different direction. After only eight games of rugby, he was playing for the USA Eagles.

A stint with leading UK club Saracens followed before he took the giant leap to the NFL.

Now back with Saracens, he is in the sights of the Queensland Reds as they attempt to rebuild after a disastrous Super Rugby season. For Smith, the opportunity to return to Australia is appealing.

“I’m contracted to Saracens until the end of next season,” he said. “But my family is all in Australia so you never know what might happen.”

Those last six words should be the title of his biography.

Few athletes have achieved what Smith has managed in three distinctly different codes. No one has done it with such a lack of experience.

To describe his career as freakish would be to underplay the incredible amount of work and persistence required to even attempt it.

“My main sport was always basketball,” he said at his London home this week.

“My family was big on cricket. My grandfather and father both played and my brother Ryan has played first grade at Penrith for the last eight years or so.

“If we played any type of football it was soccer, but I guess I was built for the physicality of the other codes.

“Even when I was playing basketball I had a reputation as a bit of a bruiser.

Hayden Smith in action for the New York Jets.

“When I was still at school, I was in the Sydney Kings development program. One time the Kings coach Brian Goorjian was demonstrating a screen drill. He picked me to take part and I put him about 10 feet in the air. He hit the wall and landed on his arse. He reckons he needed physio for six weeks He still brings it up if ever I see him.”

Through the Kings, Smith won a four-year US college scholarship in Denver, Colorado.

With a few months’ break between his final basketball season and receiving his finance degree, Smith was invited for a game of social rugby with a local club.

“I went down to Walmart and bought a pair of $40 boots,” he said. “I was still using them when I got to Saracens.’’

After a handful of games, an official at Smith’s club contacted the USA Eagles coach, Australian Scott Johnson, who fast-tracked him into the national side for a three-game tour of New Zealand and a game against Irish champions Munster.

Soon afterwards Smith and his $40 boots were then invited to join Saracens’ development academy by then coach Eddie Jones.

Hayden Smith has represented the United States and plays for Saracens in the English rugby competition and is now in the sight of the Queensland Reds.

After three games for the academy side, he was brought into the first-grade squad and played 43 games over the next four years.

He has also played 19 full internationals, including all three played by the USA at the 2011 World Cup, including one against the Wallabies.

It was at the World Cup that he was first noticed by NFL scouts. Acquiring an agent, and with Saracens’ blessing, he headed to the Senior Bowl in Alabama, a showcase for college players.

“I had a workout with an ex-personnel guy from the Chicago Bears,” he said.

“He was upbeat and with that as a calling card, we walked around the hotel lobby talking to teams.’’

Of the several offers for try-outs he received, Smith went to the Jets because they had two tight end coaches, meaning he would be given more individual attention.

He describes the trial process as “an intensely competitive environment” but was spared the usual cut-throat atmosphere as players vied for spots.

Hayden Smith also earned a US college basketball scholarship.

“At first I was a novelty but more than that was the fact that no one felt I was in any way a threat,” he said.

Unlike Australia’s other non-kicking NFL signings, Colin Scotts and Jesse Williams, Smith had no college experience in American football and had just three months to learn the complexities of a game in which players are expected to memorise a playbook roughly the size of a small phone directory.

“Until you get involved, you have no idea how complicated it is,” he said. “It meant studying for nine or 10 hours a day as well as training. It was a case of piecing together a whole new language. Basically my goal was to never make the same mistake twice.’’

He obviously succeeded well enough to gain a coveted contract with the Jets and played seven games before being cut after the season.

He had the option of staying in the US and waiting for a spot to become available at a club through injury, but when Saracens called with a two-year offer, he jumped at the chance to return.

At this stage he is looking no further than next year’s Rugby World Cup in England and fulfilling his commitment to Saracens.

After that there is the possibility of a stint in Super Rugby and maybe even a chance to return home to the foot of the Blue Mountains in yet another codethe NRL.

“When I was a kid, if I had a football dream it was to play for the mighty Panthers,” he says. “Who knows? I never rule anything out.’’