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Ja’Shon Carter knows the road well.
His family has traveled to Japan and Texas, among other places, living the military life. When the Kapolei senior earned his driver’s license, that meant more freedom.
More responsibility. He arrived at practice on Saturday with younger brother Jamir, who was still in his red PAL basketball Pearl City Rockets jersey. No. 13, of course. Dad James Carter, who was once Ja’Shon’s coach, does the same for Jamir.
Houston is a place that holds a lot of memories for Carter, who toted Jamir to practice while dad enjoyed an afternoon of golf and mom (Rashanda) got her hair done. They don’t drive their oldest son, Ja’Shon, here and there as much as they used to since he got his driver’s license.
“It was fun, and something new and exciting, but now I’m used to it,” Carter said.
There were cold winters in Wyoming for the Carter ohana.
Carter got over it. It was fun time, bonding time at the bowling alley on base, being a son in a military family.
“We used to go with my dad’s friend every Friday night,” he recalled.
He has a high score of 246 on the slick lanes.
“I was trying to go on the bowling team, but I was too late,” he said.
Dad taught his son everything he knew about the nuances of being a kingpin.
“At first, he was a straight bowler, so I taught him how to put the curve on it,” James Carter Jr. said. “It was more about bonding. We bowl here, as well, just not as much anymore.”
Kapolei’s bowling team survived without Carter, winning the state championship last fall, but his first love is basketball.
Carter is a leader on a team that has won 32 consecutive games in the Oahu Interscholastic Association West regular season.
Kapolei went 10-0 this winter in the wild West once its senior point guard returned from a hamstring injury. Carter is averaging 18 points per game in league play, and his numbers are even more impressive in the classroom. He says he doesn’t like studying, but he’s good at it. Carter has a 3.8 grade-point average.
“It gets to a point, what you studying? It gets too boring where I’m done with this. I’ll do something else,” he said. “I just make sure I get my work done first. To me, all you have to do is turn in your work and you’ll get a 3.5.”
His one AP class this year is Calculus. It’s all the same to Carter, using some time management effectively.
“Sometimes I get it done right when I get. Sometimes I procrastinate. I get in trouble if I get a C, but I’ve only gotten a C once in my life, in sixth grade,” he said.
Coach Gary Ellison has noticed the reliable, low-key people skills of his court general.
“There’s a little bit of a change this year. He’s talking to more of the boys. He takes the younger boys and talks to them on the court and on the bench. A lot of that has to do with the example (2018 graduate) Zoar (Nedd) set, and he’s kind of doing his own thing, as well,” Ellison said.
Carter, one of four seniors, has been influential.
“I think he realizes that a lot of us are younger and less experienced than him, so he has to lead by example,” said junior guard Mateo Veazie, who believes Carter will be a good coach one day. “He has great leadership qualities. He’s like our on-the-court coach and he helps us whenever we need it.”
The Hurricanes (15-7 overall) missed Carter for eight games to end preseason, going 4-4 during that stretch in December.
“It was frustrating, but in a way it was kind of good to get the team a little better without the starting point guard, to see how everyone plays, so when I get back, we can all just flow together,” Carter said. “Now I stretch out 20 minutes before every game.”
Carter’s family moved to Makakilo from San Antonio shortly after Ja’Shon had moved up to the elite team for the Texas Soldiers AAU club. At 5-foot-10, just a freshman, he showed enough at tryouts for the Hurricanes to want a deeper look.
“He told me he wasn’t on varsity,” James Carter said. “But they wanted him to come play in their first tournament. I knew he had it in him.”
Ja’Shon was steady and aggressive.
“From his freshman year, he’s had maturity way beyond his age. And he had the ability to play varsity, so we put him in,” Ellison recalled. “The second game we played at McKinley’s tournament and I looked back at coach (Kenneth Tangjian), ‘Coach, we haven’t taken him out yet.’ He’s been starting ever since.”
The ’Canes have won 13 games in a row and will have a bye when the OIA Division I playoffs begin today. Kapolei will host the Kalani-Campbell winner at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Hurricanes are taking aim at a league title and a state tourney berth, excelling on the court and off.
“That’s what he expects,” Ellison said. “If you expect that and you work at it, you’re going to get it. I saw his grades in freshman year, and I knew he was someone I never had to worry about. I watched him a little bit in his class. Peeked in, he didn’t know I was around. Same thing as the basketball court. He was calm, just working. Nothing rattles him.”
JA’SHON CARTER
Kapolei basketball * Senior
Q&A / Favorites
>> Athlete: James Harden
>> Team: Houston Rockets
>> Food (at home): “Fried fish. My mom seasons it with a special seasoning. We go back to Houston almost every summer to visit family. My whole family makes it and we bring back a bag of the seasoning.”
>> Food (eating out): “I don’t really have one here, but back in Houston, there’s a place called Pappadeaux (Seafood Kitchen). It’s seafood. It’s pretty good. They got crab fingers, catfish, crawfish, all that.”
>> Movie: “Next Friday.” “I think it’s funnier than the original. I think Mike Epps is funny.”
>> TV show: “Martin”
>> Video game: NBA2K. (Username: J2Fleeky.)
>> Music artist: Lil Wayne. “The words he uses and the way he puts it together, it’s crazy.”
>> Motto/scripture: “Kevin Durant said something like, ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work.’ “
>> Youth sports: “I played a lot of club ball in San Antonio for the Texas Soldiers.”
>> What dad says that you can’t forget: He says, “You’ve got to want it. You have to work for it. You can’t expect anything to fall in your lap.”
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