WAIMEA — Amid echoing squeaks of shoes and bouncing basketballs off the gym floor, Gilbert Acosta is taking his time. He shoots and scores, like he has several times that day.
He was “aiming for the cookie jar,” Acosta explains, later demonstrating the particular motion of reaching into a jar on a high shelf.
Here at Thelma Parker Gym, the Hui ‘O Honokaa Hawks Special Olympics Basketball Team practices for the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in July in Seattle. The team’s members are among nearly two dozen who will represent Hawaii on the big stage.
The coaches have been getting the team ready since late October when they found out they were mainland-bound, and are working even harder now that the games are just around the corner.
“It’s going to get intense and it’s expected of us,” head coach Duane De Luz said. “We’re not just representing our communities or our island, we’re representing the state. We’re the only basketball team that’s going, so it’s a big deal.”
The tight-knit Hawks seem more like a family than a team, probably because they quite literally are one.
De Luz and his wife and assistant coach Sheila De Luz are parents to player Isaiah De Luz. Assistant coach Mark Conley is father to team member Sean Conley.
Isaiah and friend Greg Villafuerte Jr. served as managers for their high school basketball team. When they told Duane that they wanted to get off the sidelines to play the game, he started researching Special Olympics.
The first year participating in Special Olympics, the family commuted to practice in Hilo. Duane found himself getting involved in coaching and was shipped off to Oahu to get trained as a Special Olympics coach.
Honokaa has been a delegation for Special Olympics in Hawaii since 2005.
Most of the team’s players, in their early to mid-20s, have known each other since high school.
“They pick me up. When I’m sad or down they ask if I’m OK,” said John Joseph DeHerrera about his teammates.
Also integral to the team is the community, who helped them fundraise enough money to travel to the tournament this summer in Seattle.
“The community has been very supportive,” Duane said.
Any additional money donated to the Honokaa Hawks’ fundraising page will be allocated for the state team’s airfare, training camp, and equipment. As of Monday afternoon, the team had raised $10,200 toward the statewide Hui ‘O Hawaii $60,000 total budget to send the state team to Seattle.
Now that April has hit, practice increases to three days a week. Six weeks before the competition, the team will begin serious conditioning.
“Our coaches are hardcore. They push us. Our coaches make us do it over again until we get it right,” DeHerrera said.
But coaching special athletes is a two-way street, according to Duane.
“These athletes teach us so much. Seeing the honest effort, the honest joy that they have, it’s just amazing,” he said.
Duane believes that it is not only beneficial for coaches, but enlightening for regular athletes to play special athletes.
“At the high school level, we’d have the girls basketball team come and scrimmage the regular athletes. When they come in they’re like, ‘yeah these guys are special so we have to go easy on them.’ And then they score or they block a shot. And they’re like ‘oh!’” laughed Duane. “So they realize, yes, this may be Special Olympics, but they do have talent also.”
Preparation for the tournament doesn’t stop off the court.
Assistant coaches Fred Peals and Mark Conley explained that the players keep food journals to adopt habits for a healthy, disciplined lifestyle. There has been significant improvement in the players’ technique and fitness since training commenced, agreed Conley and Peals.
Duane also noted a different dimension of progress in light of the looming competition.
“(The players) have talked about how much weight they’ve lost, that kind of stuff, we work on strength training, too,” Duane said. “But what I’ve seen is self-confidence. When we talk about (the competition) you can just see the glow.”
“I can assure that we are going to go up there and do as best we can. And wherever we finish, we are just so happy to be selected and represent our state,” he said.
The 2018 Special Olympics USA Games will be held July 1-6. Also competing alongside the Honokaa basketball team is Maui High School participating in youth leadership experience, the Kauai track and field team, and the Oahu Terminators soccer team.
With 21 representatives from Hawaii, this is one of the largest contingencies of players representing the state.
Whitney Alameida, the only woman on the team for six years, feels nervous but excited about the upcoming competition.
“I’m getting pumped, I’m getting into shape, I’m getting active, and I’m happy,” she smiled.
To help support travel costs for the Hawaii Special Olympics state team, you can donate money or HawaiianMiles to https://www.firstgiving.com/event/SpecialOlympicsHawaii/huio-hawaii-honokaa-hawks-2018-fund