CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii defensive end Nkeruwem "Tony" Akpan was recruited by UAB to play basketball.

Akpan stares
down his past

With just a few small twists, the UH
defensive end could be playing
basketball at UAB instead

If fate had dialed in just a degree or two differently, one of Hawaii's defensive ends could be playing against UH for UAB this week -- in the Rainbow Classic, not the Hawaii Bowl.

Four years ago, high school senior Nkeruwem "Tony" Akpan couldn't have played interscholastic football, even if he'd wanted to.

Forget about never having participated in football before. There was the small fact that his school didn't have a team. And the Nigeria native was barely eligible for sports at all after arriving in the U.S. without his family under very interesting circumstances.

"I've always wanted to travel, see the world," Akpan said when asked about his peripatetic teen years.

After a whirlwind tour of North America that had him in Canada, New Jersey and California for brief periods, Akpan finally graduated from Central Park Christian, a tiny private school that is a 10-minute drive from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He and other potential high school and college players were brought from Nigeria to North America by a Canadian named Slavko Duric who called himself an "importer-exporter," according to a story in the Newark Star-Ledger. Duric showcased the players for American coaches.

Akpan was going to play basketball at East Side High in Newark, N.J., but never did and the school's coach was fired in 1999 for his involvement with foreign players. Then Inglewood High School (Calif.) forfeited a championship because of Akpan's participation there. He was ineligible at both schools because he had not lived in the United States for at least a year.

Akpan seemed to have nowhere to go. But he finally found a home away from home and starred in basketball at Central Park, a private school that did not belong to a league that questioned his eligibility. He graduated an honor student.

He'd never donned football pads and didn't have plans to do so while there. He did, however, get acquainted with big-time college football -- as a fan.

"I watched a couple of Alabama games, they played in Birmingham, at Legion Field (also UAB's home field)," he said. "My first live football game. What an experience.

"I really enjoyed Birmingham, the people I met there. It was fun," Akpan said.

There was no way then he could've predicted he'd be playing college football against UAB -- not to mention in a bowl game, in Hawaii. But that's what it will be Friday when Akpan and his teammates at UH (7-5) line up against the Blazers (7-4) at Aloha Stadium in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

Akpan was recruited by UAB to play basketball, but he'd already decided on Hawaii, after then-UH assistant Scott Rigot liked what he saw of Akpan in an all-star tournament in Canada a year earlier.

"He kept track of me," Akpan said. "He had me come visit Hawaii, and I loved it."

After two years with the Rainbow basketball team (minus a 15-game NCAA-imposed suspension because of eligibility issues), Akpan decided to try football in the spring of 2003. With quickness and strength and plenty of room for more muscle on a 6-foot-7 frame, he was viewed as a natural for defensive end. He's now listed at 274 pounds after weighing in at 254 last year.

Akpan has had the ups and downs you'd expect for a novice football player. Last year he learned how to put on the pads. This year he learned about playing in pain.

He played in 10 of UH's 12 games, mostly as a backup to starting ends Melila Purcell and Kila Kamakawiwo'ole. He's been in on 16 tackles, including two for loss. He has also missed lots of time with a shoulder subluxation.

"He was coming on fast, but then the injury held him back," Warriors defensive coordinator George Lumpkin said. "When he got hurt, he regressed. He had a hard time learning to play with pain, even though the injury couldn't get worse. Football's a game you have to play sometimes with some injuries."

Akpan will undergo surgery on the shoulder after the season.