GATESVILLE – 4,900 miles.

That’s roughly the distance from Gatesville to Honolulu, Hawaii, but for former Gates County High School football player Daniel Crocker it could be right around the corner.

The Corapeake native left earlier this week for the Rainbow State as part of the NoKaOi Football Showcase, June 28-July 5. The sole purpose of the mid-summer football camp and game is to offer high school athletes and college coaches the opportunity to travel to one of the world’s most exciting destinations while at the same time participating in the game they love.

Players sought for participation are athletes that the organizers feel have the potential to play college football. Sixteen college coaches will be in attendance, coaching teams and evaluating athletes.

“Local officials were scouting players from small schools across North Carolina, and that’s how I got selected,” Crocker said. “They referred me as one of the players to play.”

Crocker finished his four-year prep career with the Red Barons last fall and graduated from GCHS earlier this month. While he didn’t play much his freshman and sophomore years, he was a vital part of the ‘Barons teams that made the state playoffs and won a combined 12 games over his final two seasons. He closed out his 2015 season with 14 rushing touchdowns.

One of the things that make his selection unique is that Crocker is postponing a chance to participate in college football right out of high school. He has instead enlisted in the U.S. Navy and will be leaving in November.

“The military offered great benefits,” he enthused. “I liked the Navy because I like the water and what I want to major in while I’m there is diving and underwater welding. I want to go to college after my three-year commitment.”

Crocker credits his welding class at Gates County High School with helping steer him on his career path.

“I’ve never dived before,” he says with a grin, “but I’m a pretty good swimmer.”

During the winter and spring, Crocker worked for the Town of Ahoskie Recreation Department. On Saturdays he would referee youth basketball games as well as command the concession stand.

“Anything they needed me to do I did it,” Crocker maintains. “I set up special events like parades and fireworks, and stuff like that.”

Crocker said he appreciates his time in recreation management, but said long-term he was looking for something a little more lucrative.

Crocker is looking forward to facing players from all across the country. The game will also be a showcase of sorts and his play might just catch the eye of a college coach. Still, he says he won’t change his enlistment plans, but is willing to listen to anything a potential college might offer.

A few months prior to graduation and after the youth basketball season ended, Crocker went to work in his family’s Gatesville restaurant, “Scottie’s Cafe”.

“I basically help my aunt anyway she needs it,” Crocker said. “I cook, clean, take out trash, wash dishes, I’m a waiter, just about anything.”

The Gates County establishment played a big part in helping Crocker raise the funds needed to get to Hawaii.

“We sold crab cake lunches, chicken dinners, even T-shirts,” says Crocker’s mother, Cynthia Boone, who had to get the seed money for her son’s trip to NoKaOi officials by March 1.

“After he received his acceptance letter in November, we started working at it in January. People bought dinners at the VFW Post, and some of my best customers were school-bus drivers and teachers at the schools. I also have to thank the Corapeake Ruritan Club, Gates County High Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Zion Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church,” she declared.

It seemed like all of Gates County seemed to be chipping in to help out with sending their native son halfway across the Pacific.

“Rev. Henry Jordan (Gates County Commissioner) helped me with contributions from churches, including his Mt. Moriah church,” Boone added. “Town’s Sheet Metal in Sunbury made a gift; and Jason Hopkins at the Uptown Café in Ahoskie got his customers to pledge $2 from every meal sold at the café toward Daniel’s trip. My sister, Denise Scott (proprietor of ‘Scottie’s’) also made a generous donation.”

Before the eight-week deadline, Boone had raised $5,000 – enough for airfare not only for Daniel, but also – thanks to her family and friends making up the difference – enough for her to accompany her son on the trip.

“I’m looking forward to going,” she says. “While he’s at practice from 8:30-to-11:30, I can go shopping and sightseeing; and I’m really looking forward to my first luau.”

As for Daniel, he continues to plot out his life-track.

“I want to be successful,” he maintains. “Years from now I want to have goals in place; I want a family, a nice car, be able to help out my family, simple life goals.”

Last January, former Gates County High product Thomas Smith returned to present his former school with a gold commemorative football; a gift to all players who participated in the first 49 NFL Super Bowls (Smith played defensive back for the 1993 Buffalo Bills). The ex-UNC star also took the time to speak to the Red Baron student athletes, and someone to whom his message struck home was Daniel Crocker.

“He gave me a lot of inspiration,” Crocker noted. “He made it coming out of Gates County, and that’s hard to do because we’re so small and we don’t get a lot of recruiters. He told me to keep my dreams up, work hard, play hard, and it will all pay off.”

Crocker says he’s looking forward to Hawaii, but also to November when he begins his enlistment with eight weeks of military boot camp.

“After that time, I hope I’m on a ship somewhere,” he explains. “I hope I’ll be stationed somewhere like Norfolk, close to my family.”

After his NoKaOi Hawaiian football trip, there may be another naval duty station Crocker might want to consider: Pearl Harbor.