During Austin Dias’ tenure as a Spanish and literature professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he stumbled upon compositions that included metaphors and symbols referencing “the circle of life.”
Art has a way of intimidating life because, without life experience, it wouldn’t be possible to create compelling messages in any form of art, especially literature.
For Dias, who visited Kauai to watch his grandson Makua Marumoto play basketball for Hawaii Baptist in the second Garden Island tournament, this is not only his homecoming to Kauai, but this is also him living the passages he taught.
Indeed, Dias’ return to Kauai was like returning to his roots and reliving his life vicariously through Marumoto, a University of Hawaii volleyball recruit set to play for the Rainbows in 2020.
Returning home
It must have been a strange trip to relive past while focusing on the future.
Dias, who is in the process of writing his memoirs, was bombarded with memories of his past while focusing on one of the future legacies of his storied family.
“Coming back to Kauai was so serendipitous, and to watch him play tonight against my high school, Kapaa,” Dias said. “I came into that gym (as a student), and I was the worst basketball player. So my coach had us play to become coordinated.”
Dias is a native of Kauai, a graduate of Kilauea School in 1955 and a former Kapaa High School quarterback from the fall of 1955 to 1956 under then-coach Don Shishido before his family relocated to Los Angeles after rumors circulated the Kilauea Plantation was going under.
Dias considered playing for Kapaa and joining his family in Los Angeles after graduating.
Still, after being encouraged by Shishido to go to the mainland in search of academic opportunities, he went.
Opportunities are what he found.
As the signal-caller at Leuzinger High School in California, he flourished, and scholarships awaited.
Big-name schools recruited him until he found the NCAA Division II University of Santa Barbara to be a fit.
“I was a fair quarterback in high school, and I was scouted immediately,” Dias said. “As a young person, I had my feet on the ground. I was scouted immediately and flown to Cal-Berkeley and Stanford. Once I made a trip to Santa Barbara, I was very realistic and realized Division II was more my speed.”
Maybe he only referred to himself as a “fair” quarterback because of who was ahead of him at the places he was being recruited.
Cal Berkeley had a quarterback named Craig Morton, whose 17-year NFL career included stints with the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and New York Giants.
He was also being looked at by the Naval Academy, who had a quarterback named Roger Staubach.
Stanford was another interested school before he settled at the University of Santa Barbara.
His three-year stint at Santa Barbara paid dividends.
He then was drafted by the Oakland Raiders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL in 1962.
“I would have been better on defense at the pro level because, at the time, the Raiders had quarterback Daryle Lamonica,” Dias said. “When I played at Santa Barbara, I was so much better of a defensive player than a quarterback.”
Eventually, he got his master’s degree and was enrolled in ROTC when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and spent a year in Vietnam.
Afterward, he applied to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he earned his doctorate and was hired at UH-Manoa. He spent 1971 to 2006 at UH as a Spanish literature professor, eventually becoming chair of European languages there.
Back to the future
Dias’ past is as storied as his eldest grandchild’s future.
Makua Marumoto and his sister, Haumea, now considered one of the top volleyball players in the nation at the age of 13, have generated interest in some of the best programs in the country.
Indeed, Makua has a bright future, and is one of only three students to make it on the president’s list of Hawaii Baptist Academy.
“I have been working on the last chapters of my memoirs for several years, and I am now finishing my last chapter,” Dias said. “I am going to publish it in 2020 as part of my legacy. I am writing it for my children, who know nothing about the plantation life.”
Not only did Dias get a chance to watch Makua play ball, but he also got an opportunity to be in the gym and the very placed that helped shaped him.
He credited Kapaa for their excellent team, and was impressed by the athletes of Kauai High, as he got to see a whole new generation of players, and the business of sports evolve.
When Dias was young, his prime motivation was to use athletics as a medium to get his education paid for.
Dias, who worked on the plantations for two summers, never lost focus of the vehicle sports offered him.
“I received a lot of motivation and appreciation from working on the plantation, and seeing what my parents had to go through,” Dias recalled. “It was a tough living, but it was a good life, and everyone knew everyone. That goes back to the circle-of-life thing. I went off to the big world, went into the military, fought in a war, got my Ph.D. Now I am back on Kauai to watch my grandson play sports in Kapaa. I don’t take any of this for granted.”
Before returning to Honolulu Sunday afternoon, he was reflective of everything from the evolution of the business of sports to his own life, to his grandson’s future, while reliving his past.
Indeed, Dias is blessed to experience the spin cycle of life, and he did it all over in a three-day basketball tournament on Kauai.
Isn’t the circle of life a strange journey?
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Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
Like one commenter made on some other writer, I believe it was Mr. Rollins, Shameless piece of writing Mr. Blasco. It looks like a page off the national enquirer.
‘Circle of Life’ , it’s not the destination but the journey. Congratulations y Felicidades Sr. Dias!