Calhoun’s Hawaiian Getaway Helps Ease Pain of the Past : College football: Kennedy grad’s patience rewarded with starting berth for Rainbows.

Like a lot of people, Akili Calhoun went to Hawaii to get away from it all. Calhoun, however, had more to get away from than a lot of people.

After a redshirt season and two years on the University of Hawaii bench, Calhoun, a 21-year-old from Granada Hills, has earned a starting berth at defensive tackle. And his recent successes have helped suppress the pain that caused him to leave the mainland in 1987.

High school had left him heartbroken. A 6-foot-4, 270-pound two-way tackle on the Kennedy football team, Calhoun was used for his size and naivete, then cast aside when his services were no longer needed.

But his is not a story of an athlete being used by callous coaches. The fact that he offered excellent protection was not lost on an adult at the Kennedy campus who had nothing to do with football.

A petite female undercover police officer named Sharon Fischer was posing as a student and buying drugs. She met Calhoun, who soon believed he had a devoted girlfriend.

An internal affairs investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department determined in February, 1987, that Fischer had maintained an “improper” relationship with Calhoun, who by all accounts had no connection to the drug dealers and users Fischer was chasing. Fischer was fired and Calhoun was left to sort out the emotional wreckage. He had been deceived by someone he believed cared about him, and he was ostracized by students who weren’t sure where he stood.

Although Calhoun had a scholarship offer from USC, he figured distance was the best cure for heartache. Big guys have feelings too.

“Everything is going well,” he said after a recent practice with the Rainbows. “I made the right choice coming here.”

Calhoun suffers from dyslexia, a learning disability that makes reading difficult. The university has been especially helpful.

“They’ve been helping a lot with it,” said Calhoun, who is majoring in sociology. “I get special tutoring. I’m hoping for my degree.”

A foot injury kept Calhoun sidelined much of last season, but off-season surgery corrected the problem.

“This is my time, I’m hoping for a big year,” he said.