Kekoa Chun’s large hands come together — a map of one another — and each index finger brushes lightly against his lips. With eyes focused straight ahead, though on nothing in particular, one can see the introspection of this young
Kekoa Chun’s large hands come together — a map of one another — and each index finger brushes lightly against his lips. With eyes focused straight ahead, though on nothing in particular, one can see the introspection of this young man.
Words, to him, are not to be wasted. He picks them with the precision of a cat’s step.
“My goal, from the beginning of the season, was to become a better person through basketball,” Chun said. “I think that I have done that.”
If pacing the Kapa’a Warriors Tuesday night with 12 points and five rebounds in their Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation championship victory over Waimea was the standard by which he judged himself, then his season, indeed, has been a success.
“I wanted to help this team get to this point,” Chun said. “I wanted to see us get to states this year.”
Perhaps Chun’s careful introspection stems from three years of incessant questioning where his ability is concerned. Three months ago, when this scribe readied to cover his first KIF basketball season, he asked those in the know what the skinny was on this 6-foot-5 senior from Kapa’a who’d been selected an all-star volleyball player.
“That’s the eternal question,” the tenured people said. “We’ve been waiting to see what he could do for three years. He plays a little soft. He could be dominant or he could disappear.”
At times this year, Chun, the league’s tallest player, has become lost in the flow of the Warriors’ offense. Much of that stems from his apparent desire to play the guard position. But when he’s focused, as he’s been for Kapa’a’s last three games, he’s proven the legitimacy of the maturation process.
“I heard what people were saying about me,” Chun said. “How could I not?
“But my father has always told me to focus on myself and on winning. It doesn’t matter what other people say. You can’t go around worrying about that.”
When he’s keeping pace with the game around him, his impact supersedes statistics. In addition to pulling down rebounds and blocking shots, Chun has shown the ability to change strategies in the KIF.
Sporting smaller bodies, other teams have occasionally had to find their offense in places other than the post. Even if Chun and his comrades-in-height don’t block a shot, they change the way it’s taken.
Offensively, Chun has evolved considerably since the season’s beginning. Tuesday night he showed the repertoire of a true scoring threat. He hit on lay-ups, mid-range jump shots and nailed a left-handed sky hook that had Warriors coaches raising eyebrows at each other.
“He’s really matured this year,” Kapa’a head coach Michael Ban said. “He’s gotten a lot better on the basketball court. We’re really proud of him.”
Part of that maturation has meant turning his quiet demeanor into a brand of stoic leadership. Along with seniors Rhyan Greenleaf and Chris Lary, Chun said he just wants to light the way.
“The three of us get together, on our own, and talk about what we can do to lead this team,” Chun said. “We just want to go out in practice and show some of the younger classmen how things should be done. Hopefully, that will crack through and begin to show them the right way to do things.”
Never was some brand of leadership more necessary than during the midway point of Kapa’a’s season. Two players were excused from the team. Meanwhile bad attitudes and confusion marked the bunch that remained on the court.
“It took all of us to get over the bad times,” Chun said. “We finally just decided that we needed to practice hard and stop making mistakes in school.”
Though many wondered if the Warriors could pull out of the rut, Chun never doubted. And now he wants to take that resolve to the state tournament.
“I remember when we went to states two years ago,” Chun said. “We played hard and won our first game, but it seemed like we were satisfied with that. I don’t want us to be that way this year.
“We are going to states for one reason. We should be focused on basketball only. Most outer-island teams, it seems, want to do other things in Honolulu. But why go to states if you’re not focused on winning.”
Unlike Chun’s words, that would be a waste.
