Twenty months after Hurricane Katrina appeared to have left his football dreams in shambles, safety Le'Marcus Gibson has emerged with a ticket to paradise.

Gibson, a 5-foot-11, 197-pound safety from Mississippi, has accepted a scholarship offer from the Warriors. He will enroll as a freshman at UH in January 2008.

"I'm looking forward to it," Gibson said. "I feel very blessed."

Indeed, Gibson is fortunate to survive Katrina's fury.

Gibson and his cousin, Harrison Central High football coach Nekemia Rich, were living in Gulfport, Miss. — the direct path of Katrina.

"The day after we left Gulfport, it hit," Gibson recalled. "The day we left, the winds were blowing hard. Getting out of town was crazy because traffic was backed up so bad. Everyone was trying to evacuate."

They went to Starkville, a 4-hour drive inland, where Gibson's family lived. A couple of weeks later, Gibson and Rich returned to rubble.

"Everything was torn apart," Gibson said. "There were apartment buildings gone. Nothing was left behind but the stairwell. A lot of houses near the beach got flooded."

The roof of their apartment building was blown away.

"We lost our apartment," Rich said. "We lost a lot of clothes and memorabilia. But you can't cry about that. There were some people living here all of their lives. They lost everything. Their life savings. All of their valuables. There were some people who are retired who lost their homes. I mean, what else have you got?

"We didn't lose anything that couldn't be replaced," Rich added. "We have the mindframe that we're very fortunate to basically be alive. We're young. We can bounce back. There are so many who aren't so fortunate. The entire Gulf Coast is trying to get past this. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take a couple of years to get over the devastation."

For the past year and a half, Gibson and Rich lived on a part of the school campus that has been turned into a shelter.

Under Rich's guidance, Gibson focused on improving his grades.

After accepting the coaching job in Gulfport in 2004, Rich was asked to take in Gibson.

"He needed someone like myself to be around him for a little guidance," Rich said. "It's more of a big brother thing. Staying with me would benefit him a whole lot, not just athletically but academically."

When Gibson transferred to Harrison Center High as a sophomore, he had a cumulative 2.5 grade point average. He will graduate in June as an honor student.

"He really got it together," Rich said. "Some of the teachers come up and brag about him, how they enjoyed having him in their class."

Gibson was recruited by Houston, Buffalo and Louisiana Tech. But he harbored a dream of playing for UH.

Gibson said UH wideout C.J. Hawthorne is a family friend. Because of that, Gibson always took the Warriors when he played the NCAA football video game. From that, he became a UH fan.

Gibson remembered telling Rich: "It might be a long shot, but I want to send my tapes to Hawai'i and see what happens."

Gibson said he sent his tapes to Rich Miano, who coaches the UH defensive backs. Two days ago, Gibson received the UH offer.

"Some of the things you go through make you stronger," Rich said. "He worked hard. This is a good reward."

BAPTISM FOR KEPO'O

Yesterday was the first spring practice in which the Warriors wore full pads.

The Warriors conducted an intrasquad scrimmage involving mostly the reserves. Head coach June Jones said he needs to trim the roster by at least 30 players after spring practice to make room for newcomers arriving in August.

"We're trying to give guys a chance to show what they can do," Jones said.

In practices, the quarterbacks, dressed in orange jerseys, are not allowed to be hit. Yesterday, Jones waived that rule — for every quarterback not named Colt Brennan.

Freshman quarterback Kiran Kepo'o was hit — hard — on three consecutive plays. On one scramble, Kepo'o was flattened by Josh Rice.

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," Miano said of Sin City-raised Rice.

"Welcome to the college level," Kepo'o said. "When coach told me it was live, I was, 'Oh, shoot.' It's different from high school. They've got better hitters. Usually the defense doesn't get to hit the quarterback. It was a great opportunity for them. Unfortunately, I was the guy they got to hit. But it was good for me to get used to the speed. It was good to play real football again."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.