Thompson Academy, whose basketball team practices often at Mother Waldron Park, is a haven for at least two athletes with previous academic problems.
Dropping in
with the Sharks
Two basketball players transfer to
Thompson and improve academically
THE TALL kid with a monster afro lurks near the gym entrance at Kapolei High School, and basketball coach Darren Camello shrugs.
"He was probably gonna be in my rotation," Camello said of 6-foot-4 Mose Atuatasi. "We'll never know."
With former teammates and old friends hanging around the gym shortly after a Hurricanes game, Atuatasi is in his element. Realistically, he probably wouldn't have played for Kapolei this season. Not long ago, with his grades slipping, his parents pulled him out.
They sent him to Thompson Academy, a charter school with a radical approach to education. Since attending the Kakaako school, Atuatasi has fared much better in the "classroom." Thompson is a virtual school. Most homework is handled online, with the exception of daily 8-hour study halls for students on the bubble.
That was also the case for Jerrome Figueroa. Like Atuatasi, Figueroa struggled in school, both at Campbell and Kapolei. Switching to Thompson changed his focus.
MENTION MYRON B. Thompson Academy to a group of Oahu Interscholastic Association basketball fans, and chances are half of them will tell you it's probably a Division II team in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.
The Sharks were winless in their first season a year ago, though they probably had the coolest uniforms in the state. Wearing black and silver, they certainly had effort, but a majority of their players had never participated in organized basketball until last year.
Sharks assistant Fred Patoc (left), the father of ball boy Pono Patoc (second from left) and head coach Kaipo Patoc (third from left) diagrammed a play.
Add guard Christian Kamau, a 6-footer, and the Sharks seem to have an engine that far exceeds last year's firepower. However, the rest of the team, with the exception of lone returnee John Musick, are freshmen. This season, they're off to an 0-2 start, though they were competitive with other small-school teams in preseason.
The inexperience and youth don't bother Figueroa. He's just happy to be on track to graduate and, maybe, says coach Kaipo Patoc, play at the next level.
NOT EVERYONE gets a break, but Figueroa knows he got his. At Campbell, he made a bad decision that led to big trouble. He landed in juvenile court, with the possibility of doing time.
"I understood. I had to pay the consequences. The judge (at juvenile court) was deciding whether I should go to Koolau (youth facility) or not until I was 19," he said. Instead the judge cut him a break and gave Figueroa probation.
Suspended from the public-school system, his options were limited. "It was either a school in Ewa Beach or they were gonna send me to Texas," Figueroa said. "I saw Mose at the park (in Kapolei). Mose was already here, and he said, 'You should come out.' He told me to get in because he wanted me to do good in school. Basketball came second."
By December, two months after being suspended, Figueroa was at Thompson. He gets up early, catches the express bus from the Leeward side to Kakaako. There's never an open seat by the time he gets on, but he won't complain. At Thompson, he's regained a sense of purpose.
"The plus is most assignments are due at 12 at night (online)," he said. He's now able to bring his laptop home to do schoolwork. "You can go places, invite your friends over, just chill out. You got a whole lot of time to do your work," he said. "The tutors are right there if you just come in."
He could go back to Campbell next year. He misses his old friends and the little things that 'normal' high schools do, like proms. "I want to stay. Mose might stay and I don't know if I want to go back to my old school. I might get tempted to be with the wrong crowd," Figueroa said. "I'm doing good here, so most likely I'll stay."
IF ANYONE can understand the power of a second chance, it is Patoc. An All-State middle linebacker and tight end at Mililani, he went to the University of Hawaii with high expectations. Two years later, he's no longer in the Warrior football program.
Patoc, who also excelled in basketball, was a good student in high school. At UH, he ran into the problems that many teenagers run into.
"There's nobody there to push you to do your work. It's a case of you doing it or not," he said. "In the beginning, I was doing fine, doing all my work on time. But I got off track."
Other issues surfaced. "There were family problems. I didn't know if I wanted to play football at that time. I was thinking about getting a job to help my family," he said. By last semester, Patoc had lost his focus, and then the flood submerged the Manoa campus.
"When the flood hit, I didn't know the dates for two of my tests. That messed me up," he said. "But that just sounds like an excuse. I wasn't really into the school setting."
Some time has passed, and the worries have subsided. "Knowing that my brothers and sister got their own place and they're doing fine," said Patoc, who is attending Leeward Community College this spring. He's in fairly good shape, carrying 240 pounds on his 6-2 frame -- just 10 pounds more than he played at during high school.
"I still gotta talk to the coaches and see if I can walk on. At the college level, school is more important than athletics. Hopefully, I do good this spring and show the coaches that I want to come back," he said.
AT FIRST, Patoc came out to help his classmate, Thompson athletic director Andrew Aki. But Patoc is looking ahead. Atuatasi and Figueroa will be seniors next year, and Keen will only be a sophomore.
"I think Jerrome and Mose have a chance to play basketball in college. Jerrome has a chance of making it as a guard," he said of Figueroa, who is listed at 6-4, but is actually 6-3 1/2.
"If Mose picks up a little more speed and ballhandling, he could play guard," Patoc said. The athletic future for both, interestingly enough, may be in football. They both played the sport at Kapolei. UH is interested in Atuatasi as a receiver, Patoc said.
FOR THE TIME BEING, the Sharks practice at Kawaiahao Gym three times a week, and at Mother Waldron in between.
Plans are to buy a nearby warehouse and make it into a gym over the summer.
They aren't the only team that practices on blacktop, but they are certainly one team that is completely at home there.
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