Hawai'i athletes make big impact at small-town school
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
At 515-student Dana College in the little Missouri River town of Blair, Neb., there are 20 student-athletes from Hawai'i, more than at any other college east of California.
Dana College photo
There could be eight starters from Hawai'i on Dana's football team next season. The two primary passers on the women's volleyball team are twins from Pearl City. The best shooter on the women's basketball team is from Ka'a'awa. The "enforcer" of the women's soccer team is from Kailua-Kona. And there are wrestlers from Wahiawa and Kane'ohe.
Among the 20 athletes from Hawai'i at 515-student Dana College are Zach Elderts and Samanta Alapa.
They are almost 4,000 miles from home — 1,200 miles from the nearest surfing beach — and they appear to be thriving.
"With their personalities being pretty laid back, they find it a kind of relaxing, different atmosphere," says athletic director Mark Clements.
Zach Elderts of the Big Island, a three-year starter on the football team whose teammates voted him Most Inspirational Player last season, says:
"What makes it easy is there are lot of local boys. It's like one big family. This is the only family we have here; we make each other comfortable, we're always around each other."
Hawai'i residents are the third largest group in Dana's student body, after Nebraska and Iowa.
"They're looking for opportunity to play and go to school," wrestling coach Steve Costanzo said. "It's pretty dang cold here in winter and that's a challenge for them. But athletics keep them very busy."
Homesickness does occur.
Dana College photo
"Being away has its moments, but sometimes I want to be on the beach in the sun," says basketball player Samanta Alapa, a freshman from Sacred Hearts and Ka'a'awa.
Among the 20 athletes from Hawai'i at 515-student Dana College are Zach Elderts and Samanta Alapa.
Alapa said she "didn't think about college. Then I realized as my senior season was ending that I wanted to keep playing."
By then, most teams' scholarships were gone.
"I looked on the Internet and found Dana," Alapa said. "I knew a lot of local kids went there and (the coach) offered me the most money.
"Small town, small school. I like it."
Dana is a member of the NAIA, which allows 24 scholarships in football, often split into shares, and a smaller number in other sports. Tuition next year will be $14,200 and room and board will cost $4,342. All of the Hawai'i athletes receive some form of financial aid.
The migration of Hawai'i high school graduates to Dana was started in the mid 1990s by the recruiting of Jim Simpson, a former assistant football coach there from Na'alehu. In recent years the recruiting specialists at Hawai'i Sports Network, like Doris Sullivan, have placed student-athletes at Dana.
"They've found themselves a little home here," football coach Jim Krueger said. "They seem to adjust well. It's kind of funny watching all the Hawai'i kids playing in the snow."
Krueger said having more than a dozen players from Hawai'i on his team "has been an education for me, too."
One thing he said he has learned is not to call them all Hawaiian.
