Jakub Petras is in his first year at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, arriving from Zilina, Slovakia, where ice hockey and football are prominent sports.
The 5-foot-8 junior also brought his tennis racket because that’s his sport of choice — not football, which is called soccer in the United States.
Before he got here, Petras probably didn’t know that HPA is the three-time defending BIIF champion.
But the fan favorite of Novak Djokovic already has a stated mindset that needs no interpretation.
“I would like the team to win the BIIF title and for me to have some good play in the finals,” he said.
Back home, his high school doesn’t have a tennis team. There’s club ball, and the courts are clay, not hard-court, which favors big swingers who can deliver top-spin sinkers.
Petras received a good lesson in that from Hilo’s Gil Assi, who played cleaner ball, hit harder and swept 6-2, 6-2 in a BIIF match on a scorching Saturday.
“I definitely think Jakub has a shot at the BIIF title,” HPA coach Jeff Lewis said. “Anything is possible if he improves his ball-striking and ground strokes. He’s getting better in every match.
“I think we have a good chance to win the BIIF team title. The team has come together, and we’ve figured out the lineup. The team is getting cohesive.”
Assi is the probable favorite for the BIIF individual title now that Hawaii Prep’s JJ Minakata (a two-time BIIF champ) is playing college ball at Eastern Washington.
“My serve was not as good as I wanted, especially my second serve with not a lot of top spin,” said Petras, who speaks solid English, considering the language is taught at 10 years old in school.
“I have to work on my backhand and serves. I need to go lower on my backhand and put more spin on my second serve.”
His dad Juraj Petras, who’s an IT, and mom Maria, a dermatologist, both played tennis when they were younger.
During spring break, his parents flew over 7,700 miles to visit, and the family ventured to Maui for a day of scuba diving.
The Petras family immediately found out why Hawaii is called Paradise. There are no oceans in Zilina, an industrial city with rivers and mountains.
When Petras graduates, his dream is to attend a college in London and major in business.
But first, Petras wanted to take an adventure, before his life as a working stiff.
“I wanted to go somewhere in the U.S. to improve my English and see a different culture,” Petras said. “I had three options, but Hawaii was the best. In Europe, it sounds really exotic, and it was so far away that I wanted to see it.
“Zilina is as big as Kona. It’s the fourth biggest city in Slovakia. I like hiking in the mountains, and there’s so much fresh air. We have rivers but don’t have an ocean.”
Petras started tennis at 6 years old, and following local tradition (like, for Hawaii locals it’s eating a plate lunch) he took up ice hockey six years later.
When he had a break in the tennis season, which ran from May to August, Petras would play hockey.
In Zilina, the cold season lasts from late November to early February, running from 33 degrees to a toe-freezing 19 degrees.
That’s a good reason Petras also brought his swimming shorts and why he’s the rookie Ka Makani with the biggest smile.