Kawa Harijan

Eng.

02/11/05

            Dr. Rockne Freitas has led anything but a normal life. From a young age he was destined for something above average.  This small Hilo community isn’t home to very many well-known celebrities. Sure, Jason Scott Lee resides in Volcano and Kenny Loggins lives in Hawi, but Hilo’s Hawaii Community College Chancellor has received his fair shame from the plate of fame.

            Throughout his childhood, Rockne Freitas showed a competitive spirit. Perhaps it was his pigeon selling business at the age of six that first gave him his edge, or maybe it was attending Kamehameha for 13 years, which he likens to an “institution kind of like a community college.”

            While attending Kamehameha, Freitas showed promising potential in sports and was offered many football scholarships. Sadly, the University of Hawaii showed no interest in Freitas forcing his to go abroad for college. Freitas accepted a scholarship to play football for Oregon State University and in doing so made an impact on their football program, later being inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame.

            Football wasn’t the only thing of Freitas’s mind during college. He knew that he needed to maintain his studies, and as hard as it was to juggle academics and sports, he managed to receive a BA in animal science, a field which highlighted his desire to become a veterinarian. His competitive spirit helped him to push through school, despite the fact that he missed school every Friday due to games, and that he took such rigorous classes as soils and organic chemistry, in which he was the only athlete. After OSU Freitas received a National Science Foundation scholarship to continue veterinarian school at Michigan State. But it was soon thereafter that something in his life happened that changed him forever.

            His football skills had attracted the attention of an NFL scout and soon Freitas was drafted by the NFL to play for the Detroit Lions. It was in Detroit where he would spend the next 12 years of his career. After a few years with the Lions Freitas became a veteran of the football world, and during the season would take rookies aside to help teach them the tricks of the trade.

            Being a famous football player didn’t stop Freitas from remembering his roots. During on off season he accepted a job as a substitute teacher at Kamehameha. And after finishing his final year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he went back to Kamehameha where he took on the responsibility of VP and Director of operations.

            Today he serves as Cheancellor for the Hawaii Community College, but not before first taking over the Ke Ali’I Pauahi Foundation, becoming a member of the Office of Hawaiian of Affairs, and being selected from a national search for his current position.

            Freitas says that this being in such a position is “probably my last dance, and I want to make it a good one.”