Growing up in Lake Charles, La., Van Lockett never wondered where to go to find a good paying job.
About 30 miles from the Gulf Coast, the city has become a major petrochemical center with job opportunities in the oil and gas fields. His father, an army vet who visited Hawaii while serving, has worked in the field for years, his mother, a retired teacher, later got her Masters and also worked in special education.
“I never had to wonder where I could go to make a buck,” Lockett said last week, “and at the end of high school I just didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I worked.”
His parents, with five other children — Van is the youngest, his closest sibling in age being eight years older — always stressed the importance of a college education.
“I got it,” Lockett said, “it made sense, but at the same time, I could make some pretty good money even without more school.”
He played basketball at a pretty high level for a high school kid, but at 5-foot-10, he wasn’t a magnet as much as he was a kid who would likely have to go somewhere and prove himself to get a scholarship. Instead, he worked, a lot, and played city league basketball.
“I was just going through life, messing around, no real long-term goal or anything,” he said. “We’re country people. I worked, rode horses, partied and just sort of hung out. My lowest moments weren’t really that low, maybe I partied too much the night before or something, but I wasn’t into selling drugs or that kind of stuff, I had some money coming in.”
But no future.
“I watched my dad work from day to night to feed us and I got into that myself for a while,” he said. “I worked in a plant seven days a week, doing 12 hour shifts, I had no degree, no nothing, but I was making a bunch of money and I guess I told myself I was doing the right thing.”
As a 19 year-old, Lockett said the alarm went off at 4:30, in time for him to get ready, drive to work and walk through the gates by 6 a.m., working, often as the youngest on his crew.
“I was working with married guys in their late 20s, early 30s, and I sort of used it as a challenge to keep up and do everything,” he said. “I didn’t really think about it too much.”
But he was still playing city league games and the father of a friend took an interest when he saw a game in which Locket poured in 52 points. Calls were made to junior colleges to see if anyone had a need for a 22 year-old point guard. Several possibilities popped up but the best one seemed to be at Centralia Community College in Washington. He flew out on speculation, was told he would have an opportunity to compete for a roster spot, with no guarantees.
He took the opportunity, averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game as a freshman and had one game in which he made 14 steals. After two years of all-conference team selections, Lockett decided to return home and attend McNeese State University in his hometown. Maybe he would follow in the footsteps of Joe Dumars who became an NBA All-Star and team executive after graduating from McNeese.
Or maybe not.
It was, in retrospect, too close to home, too many ways to mess up. He didn’t attend classes, his grades plummeted and when he decided to correct all that, it required three full quarters of make-do classes to get his GPA up to an acceptable level.
UH-Hilo men’s basketball coach GE Coleman knew of Lockett from the years Coleman spent as an assistant at Central Washington and Eastern Washington. By the time Lockett got to Hilo, he was 24, but with a roster full of holes, Coleman thought the advanced age might be beneficial, and he was right about that.
A week ago, Lockett’s parents flew to Hilo and spent several days absorbing the local weather, scenery and the people who live on the Big Island.
After what he calls “five wasted years,” their son was graduating. Van asked them to bring his old cowboy boots for the occasion. When he took the walk to get his administration of justice degree, he was wearing those boots, “to remember where I came from.”
Success stories come in all shapes and sizes. Van Lockett, after what five purposeless years, found his path in life at UH-Hilo.
“I came here not sure what I wanted to do, but I was determined to get a degree and figure it out,” he said. “I enjoyed every minute of it, I love my teammates and coaches and the people here have been tremendous to me.
“I have options in my life now,” he said. “I might be able to play some (international professional) basketball and that would be great, something I never could have hoped for before coming here. Sometime in the future, I promise, I will be a homicide detective, it’s a calling for me, I think.”
And then he has his hobby of raising American Bullies, the product of cross breeding two different breeds of bull terriers, which could be a profitable side business.
He survived, and when he turns 27 next month, Van Lockett will be all smiles with a lifetime of options waiting for him, none involving endless shifts in the oil refineries of southern Louisiana. He has a future.
Life is good.
