There’s not always a lot of difference between what you think you can do and what you can actually do, and sometimes it’s a matter of having the right people around you for support.

Take Pearl City’s Zion Tupuola-Fetui, for instance. A few years ago, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound defensive end for the Chargers’ football team gave up on trying to dunk a basketball.

“I was always rejected by the rim,” he said at a recent practice. “So, I said, ‘It’s fine. I’m not going to be a dunker.’ My dreams were vanished already. Last year, some guys told me to try a dunk and I told them I didn’t know how. They were like, ‘Bro, trust me, you can dunk. Just try.’ So I dunked it.”

That is one small example of how the seemingly impossible can become possible, and Tupuola-Fetui is working on much more than dunking a basketball. To wit:

>> His Pearl City Chargers are trying to win the first league title in school history. They shut out Kaimuki 7-0 last weekend for the right to meet Waipahu (9-0) in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II championship game Oct. 26.

>> He holds college scholarship offers from eight Division I schools, and when he picks one, he vows to continue to improve to be the best possible player he can be.

>> When asked for a synopsis on Tupuola-Fetui, Chargers coach Robin Kami cut right to the quick: “He has the potential to play on Sundays in the NFL eventually.”

Potential “to play on Sundays”

From an appearance in the high school title game to a spot on an NFL roster is one gigantic leap, but so was that dunk, or so Tupuola-Fetui thought.

“Whoever gets him in college will be putting 30 to 40 pounds of weight, muscle, speed and strength on him and it will forge him into that complete player,” Kami continued. “He is young (will turn 18 next July) and he may even grow 1 or 2 inches, and that might make a big difference.”

Tupuola-Fetui can also play receiver and made his mark on special teams with a last-minute blocked field goal to preserve a regular-season win over Kaimuki.

“If they need me to throw passes, I’ll do it,” he said. “It’s refreshing playing offense, even if it’s for one play and even if I don’t get the ball. It makes the sport more fun.”

Tupuola-Fetui had to deal with teammates looking at him differently when the offers from Cal, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Washington and Washington State poured in.

“Some were seeing me as an idol,” he said. “Others felt like they had to tear me down. I understand it. It comes with it. I just took it as it came. There’s none of that now. We’re all seen as equals. We are a team, and I think my biggest accomplishment is being there for my team. Offers are great and all, but I’m here to win. I was able to get that message across. We’re all here chasing the same goal.”

Tupuola-Fetui, who participates on the Chargers’ paddling and volleyball teams and plays pickup basketball, puts Washington and Cal slightly ahead of the others on the list, but all eight are still possible.

“In college, I just want to grow as a player,” he said. “I think that that’s what I’m going to need to do to excel at that level. Whatever I have to do to maintain that scholarship. It’s a huge blessing for my family, and to lose it would be not only disappointing for me, but also for them.”

Seeking a state berth

First, there is the business at hand, and the next step is the Waipahu game. Success there would put Pearl City in the state D-II tournament, a place where the Chargers have not had much success.

“This team, hands down, has an opportunity to get the OIA championship and maybe even the state,” Tupuola-Fetui said. “We have to keep our heads down and do our due diligence. I would turn in any award given to me for a championship with this team. The varsity team is always chasing the championship and we haven’t reached that level of success yet. I know we have the capability to do so. A lot of people don’t think we have the capability of finishing, that we get in our own way. We are not that team at all. We don’t let the past linger. We have to move on. Our mind-set is different and I want to prove a lot of people wrong.”

Another thing about Tupuola-Fetui is that he does not like to lose.

“Ever since I was a little kid, losses have always been devastating,” he said. “I’d cry. We lost the homecoming game last year, and I was just devastated. But what I remember most about that night wasn’t the loss — it was the swarm of teammates that came to comfort me and really give me that sense of family on the football team. I know it’s a cliche that athletes say we are brothers and family, but it was just that warm sense that they were there for me when I couldn’t be there for myself. That care for one another, I’d take that over a championship any day.”