KAILUA-KONA — Dan Sabo won a telescope at a science conference years ago.
His most recent streak of luck just rendered a prize a bit more glamorous.
The retired elementary school teacher and longtime Kona resident won West Hawaii Today’s Football Fever drawing and with it a trip for two to Vegas along with $500 of walking around money.
Sabo claimed his reward Wednesday, and for this particular NFL fan, the timing couldn’t have been more fortuitous.
A former student of Sabo’s plays center on the offensive line of his favorite team, which just suffered through the kind of result that threatens to make a man squeamish around zoos for the rest of his life.
You know, because of the zebras? And their black and white stripes?
“I taught Max Unger, so I’m a big Saints fan and they just got screwed,” said Sabo, referring to what is being described as one of the worst calls by a referee in sports history, and a call that all but surely cost the Saints a trip to Atlanta for next week’s game.
“I text Max after every game,” he continued. “Usually it’s congratulations, but that was a sad one. They should not have lost. They should be in the Super Bowl.”
A teacher at Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Kona campus back when it existed, Sabo also spent part of his four decades as an elementary educator at Hualalai Academy. There he taught another West Hawaii sports figure, although one of considerably less note than the Saints’ Unger.
WHT sports editor J.R. De Groote, one of three panelists against whom community players compete in the paper’s Football Fever contest, learned an array of third-grade skills from Sabo.
Proving that education is a lifelong pursuit, the 72-year-old retiree taught De Groote and the rest of the panel a lesson or two throughout the year, emerging with a better record than all three panelists in a handful of the weekly pick em’ contests where participants select winners and losers of college and pro football games based on point spreads.
Beyond De Groote, WHT’s panel includes reporter/photographer “Slick” Rick Winters and ace editor Tom Hasslinger. Besting the paper’s triumvirate of “football experts” wins players a spot in a drawing for a weekly prize of $250.
Anyone who enters the contest, even for one week, gets a shot at the big prize, which isn’t contingent on picking correct point spreads. Although, Wednesday still felt a lot like winning to Sabo.
“It’s the first time I’ve won anything (through the contest),” Sabo said. “I haven’t been a weekly winner. This is it.”
As for the trip to Vegas, it won’t be Sabo’s first. He and his wife have friends in the area. During their last trip, they saw “Love,” a production by Cirque du Soleil based on the music by the Beatles combined with the world-famous entertainment troupe’s unique flare.
Sabo said it’ll be the shows that highlight this next jaunt to the desert, but they’ll be accompanied by a little action at the blackjack table, as well.
An excursion to Nevada’s version of paradise for the price of “on the house” should help Sabo ease more than just the heartbreaking Saints defeat last Sunday. It may also go some lengths to soothe a plight that’s haunted the Ohio native 16 Sundays a month for the last couple of decades.
“I grew up in Cleveland, so I’m a die-hard Browns fan. That’s not easy to be,” Sabo said smiling. “It’s been a rough few years.”
Bon voyage, Dan. You’ve earned it.