FROM THE ISLANDS TO INDIANA
Volleyball star Keau Thompson is embarking on a new chapter on and off the court.
Home for Keau Thompson has long been on the volleyball court. As one of Punahou School’s star players this graduating season, the 18-year-old athlete has racked up an impressive collection of awards, honors, trophies, lucrative collegiate scholarships, and humble notoriety that, this August, will take him halfway across the country to a new home court in Muncie, Indiana. Thompson considers the move to Ball State University to be a thrilling step to forwarding his already-thriving sports career—one he hopes will lend itself to even more opportunity on a global scale. With dreams of European pro- fessional league play in his post-college future, the soon-to-be Graphic Arts major will have plenty to adjust to this year. “I got to go visit back in September of last year and I loved it. I was honest- ly kind of shocked because I’ve never been to Indiana.”
Though he may be leaving the island, he’s taking his OCC club ohana and is- land upbringing along with him as he dons a new jersey. “My [Punahou] coach Rick Tune has been my coach pretty much my entire career for school. I’ve pretty much only had the one coach for the majority of my volleyball career,” said Thompson of his Punahou coach and mentor. “Without him, I definitely
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 | AMA 13
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