After taking a year off to spend time with his ailing mother, 2013 Kealakehe graduate Deion Utrera is heading back to college to continue his schooling and basketball career.
After taking a year off to spend time with his ailing mother, 2013 Kealakehe graduate Deion Utrera is heading back to college to continue his schooling and basketball career.
Utrera left Concordia University after his freshman year in April of 2014 after his mother was diagnosed with cancer and began to get worse despite treatments, which started shortly after winter break. Utrera made it back and was able to spend a few months with his mother before she passed.
“It was very important to me to get home and be with her until the very last day and I was there until her final breath,” Utrera said. “But first, I had to finish my classes strong and finish finals, which is what she wanted me to do.”
Despite the heavy burden, Utrera was able to buckle down in his classes and earn a 3.6 GPA his freshman year. After finals, Utrera rushed home to be with his mother, who passed away in July, just three months later.
One year after the tragic passing, and at the urging of his family, Utrera is heading back to college.
However, this time he has signed with Ocean County College in New Jersey. While the school may be far away, it offers the comfort of a coach he has a past with.
Ocean County coach Andy Smith has known Utrera since he showed up for his Hawaiian Island Hoops Camp as an eighth grader.
“I have always known that he is the type of kid that plays several levels above his competition,” Smith said. “He has always been very impressive and he has the right heart and attitude we were looking for.
For Utrera, it was very important for him to play with someone he already has a history with.
“He knows the best way to make me the best that I can be,” Utrera said. “He has a coaching style that I know and like to play, and I feel I can be very successful.”
Utrera picked up some experience in his one season at Concordia, where he played for the junior varsity team and averaged 10-12 minutes per game.
“Concordia helped me grow by allowing me t0 go out and play as a true freshman against guys like me, but who were older, smarter and faster,” Utrera said. “They helped me develop and showed me I have to work hard to succeed.”
Smith believes that one year playing for Concordia will help Utrera tremendously at Ocean County.
“He has already played at the next level,” Smith said. “There is a big difference between players like him who have experience on the college level and players fresh out of high school.”
Utrera will find immediate playing time at Ocean County, which is good, since he will have only one year of eligibility at the two-year school. The point guard will have a chance to make an immediate impact with the departure of two sophomore point guards after last season.
“I expect Deion to establish a leadership role right away and be a second coach on the floor,” Smith said. “He is the type of kid that makes others around him better and is an unselfish player. He is very quick and controlled. He sees the floor and can penetrate. He distributes the ball well and can hit the three-point shot, but most impressive is his defense. He is a lock-down defender.”
Ocean County will have four players returning from last year’s squad, including two starters. The team will have a lot of height with three players 6-foot-7 or taller.
The stage is set for Utrera’s return to the court, but it is not all about his basketball success. Utrera also plans to have just as much success in the classroom because he knows that’s what his family, including his mother, would want.
“My family helped push me to go back to college,” Utrera said. “My father and my sister are the two people in my life that I want to make proud and show them I can succeed in everything I do. I try to be the best person I can be for them, for the rest of my family, for my friends, and for the Kona community.”
Utrera plans to play for a four-year school after finishing up his year of eligibility at Ocean County. He will earn an associates degree in general science before focusing on a bachelors degree in kinesiology. After college, Utrera plans on coming back to the Big Island and become an athletic trainer for a local high school or a physical therapist.