Wide receiver Attrail Snipes' difficult football journey will end in paradise.

Snipes, who is finishing his freshman year at Bakersfield (Calif.) College, has accepted a University of Hawai'i scholarship, and will join the Warriors in January or the summer of 2008.

Last season, Snipes caught 21 passes for 399 yards and five touchdowns. Snipes, who is 6 feet 1 and 181 pounds, has been timed running 40 yards in 4.36 seconds.

"You should see his speed," Rainier Beach (Seattle) High athletic director Dan Jurdy said. "It's what he can do after he catches the ball. He can run a 5-yard out and break that thing for 70 yards."

As a Rainier Beach senior, Snipes was named to the Seattle Times' All-Area first team. He placed first in the 100 meters (10.71 seconds), 200 (21.98) and 400 (48.83) at the Washington state meet.

"How do you do that?" Jurdy said. "He's an amazing athlete. And he's an even better person."

As a youth, Snipes moved 37 times before settling in the Seattle area as a freshman. After his mother and sister moved to California, Snipes decided to remain in Washington, living by himself in a housing project for a year.

"Sometimes he wouldn't eat for a couple of days," Jurdy said. "When we tried to help, he'd say, 'No, no. I'll be all right.' "

Jurdy and the coaches tried to provide guidance. "He had three or four dads in that school," Jurdy said. "We were all his fathers."

Snipes said he picked UH "because of the coaches." Starting outside linebacker Adam Leonard is a Rainier alumnus. "We're close," Snipes said.

Jurdy said: "You couldn't ask for a better program. The coaches and players will become his family. This is a great player going to a great program. This is a perfect fit."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.