WAIMEA – His uniform may have been blue, his spirit may have been Menehune, but on Wednesday morning, Jordon Dizon became the source of pride for Kaua‘i as he signed his Letter of Intent to play football for the University
WAIMEA – His uniform may have been blue, his spirit may have been Menehune, but on Wednesday morning, Jordon Dizon became the source of pride for Kaua‘i as he signed his Letter of Intent to play football for the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Bill Arakaki, the principal of Waimea High School, introduced the KIF all-star player to the gathering that included his mother, Darla Abbatiello, his father, Clifford Dizon, and his sister Taryn Dizon along with his former football coaches, Jon Kobayashi, and Liko Perreira as well as a collection of teachers that spanned as far back as his elementary school years.
Lei were the order of the day as they presented their ho‘okupu to Dizon, who, after waiting several years for this day, committed himself to play Division I football for one of the Big 12 colleges.
“Basketball is my favorite sport,” he told a radio reporter, “But, it’s not in the direction I’m going, so I’ll be playing football,” not ruling out a hoops option when he gets to Colorado.
Several years ago, Dizon made a trip to the Colorado campus for one of their summer camps where he got to meet some of the coaches for the football program.
Since then, he has been recruited by several colleges including the University of Hawai‘i, but once his mind was made up, Dizon said, “I’m glad to be going to Colorado. When I got to the campus and got to meet some of the people, it just seemed to be the right thing to do.”
“Coach Simms can be your best friend, but he can also be one of the meanest guys you know,” Dizon said of his future position coach at Colorado whom he met on one of his visits to the campus.
James Kitamura, Waimea High School’s athletic director had everything laid out for the poignant ceremony, the table, the chairs, and five letters laid out for Dizon to pen, noting that this was almost like signing a mortgage.
Arakaki agreed, the sense of pride clearly showing as he noted that it is not every day that an athlete from Kaua‘i gets a full scholarship from a ranked Division I college.
But, the excitement of the moment extends beyond the Clem Gomes Gym as Arakaki said Colorado, one of the ranked Big Schools, was featured on television this past season, and is already on schedule for televised games for the 2004 season.
“This is a great feeling,” Dizon said. “I wish everybody could feel what I’m feeling now.”
