Points East
DANNY Akina -- born and raised in north-central Florida -- is pretty much a Southern boy all the way. He prefers biscuits and gravy to poke and poi. But one thing Akina does share with many other Hawaiians is a passion for both football and weightlifting. Akina was a star lineman for tiny Williston High School (about 20 miles southwest of Gainesville) when it played for the state championship twice in the late 1980s. Weightlifting a
natural for HawaiiNow he coaches the linemen for the Red Devils, and helped Williston advance to the state semifinals this year. A big key to the team's success was its overall physical strength, honed in the school's weightroom last spring and the spring before.
"The last couple years we've stressed how important the weights are; not just for performance, but for their safety on the field," Akina says. "We've averaged a 30-pound increase, at every position, not just the line. The brute strength of our offensive line really helped us this year."
Delayed gratification is a tough concept to sell even dedicated high school athletes. How did Akina keep the players motivated to lift in the off-season, months before the first kickoff?
In Florida, weightlifting is a sanctioned interscholastic sport - the hard work's a lot easier to take when you can earn a letter and win some events. Like track and field, it's an ideal spring sport for football players.
HAWAII High School Athletic Association director Keith Amemiya said he thinks weightlifting could be a fine prep sport for Hawaii.
"It's something that runs across my mind. It would be a good fit. There are a lot of strong people here," he said. "It would promote physical fitness, and it would teach young people the proper methods and techniques."
Other pluses include low overhead, the fact that the sport is suitable for both boys and girls, and the many potential coaches available.
Tommy Kono, one of the greatest lifters of all-time, is still very involved in the sport, and would certainly lend his expertise.
"I ran into him the other day," Amemiya said. "He said he'd love to talk to me about it. He's the man in Hawaii and he's internationally known."
WHILE Danny Akina is doing his part for youth on one side of the country in relative obscurity, another sports figure of native Hawaiian ancestry is making a name for himself out West in the high-profile world of big-time college basketball.
Yes, in case you were wondering, UCLA basketball freshman Jason Kapono - one of the most highly recruited players in the nation last year - is of Hawaiian roots. His father, Joe, was born on the Big Island, but left as a young child. Jason Kapono will be in Laie with his teammates next week for the Pearl Harbor Classic.
Incidentally, Artesia High School, Kapono's alma mater, is featured in the latest issue of Slam magazine. Artesia is quite the basketball factory. The O'Bannon brothers, Tom Tolbert and Tony Farmer are among the school's graduates who went on to college ball and the NBA.
Artesia has another Hawaii connection: Honolulu resident Stacey Sugimura (who coincidentally also has Big Island roots) started at guard for Artesia and was all-league in 1985. His teammate, Tolbert, went on to play at Arizona with Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr and Kenny Lofton, and later in the NBA.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii
from 1977 to 1998, is a sportswriter at the
Gainesville Sun. E-mail reardod@gvillesun.com