“He was just bloomin’ awesome,” said Janet Karena, his mom.
This upcoming season, her son, the 6-foot-10, 270-pound center for the Wright State Raiders, is considered by some rival coaches the best offensive big man in the Horizon League.
But this summer Karena served as his mom’s chauffeur, tour guide and sidekick as she made her first-ever trip from their home in Christchurch, New Zealand to the United States.
“Back last January I told my mom I wasn’t coming home in the summer, that I was going to stay in America and work out and do school work,” Karena said as he sat on the sideline ofat the Raiders’ practice court in the Mills-Morgan Center. “When I said that, she was like, ‘OK, the money you were gonna spend to come home, I’m gonna spend to take myself over there.’ ”
And by a stroke of luck over the summer, Karena was still able to return home thanks to an invitation by Athletes In Action to join one of its touring basketball teams that was headed to New Zealand.
After a week’s practice in Los Angeles, he and the other U.S. college players made the 13-hour flight, played games in and around Auckland and shared their faith with young people. Karena got to see relatives from his dad’s side of the family who lived near there, some of whom he hadn’t seen in the 18 years since his father had passed away.
“My dad passed away when I was just 4 years old,” Karena said. “After that, for the most part, it was my mom who raised me and my older brother and sister. She became my biggest supporter. She’s done everything for me.”
And that’s why it was so important for him to make his mother feel comfortable on her journey to the States.
“It was a big trip for her and she was nervous before she left,” he said. “I wanted her to be able to go see everything she wanted to see.”
He met her in San Francisco and they stayed near Fisherman’s Wharf, then headed out to various sights. They traversed the Golden Gate Bridge, toured wine country — Sonoma and Napa Valley — and visited Yosemite National Park.
After that they flew to Austin, Texas and then drove to New Orleans, which ended up being Janet’s favorite spot.
“I loved it,” she said Thursday by phone from New Zealand. “I thought the people were beautiful and there was so much to see.”
Along with Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, they went on a plantation tour and then a swamp excursion because, among other things, Michael said, she wanted to see alligators.
“There’s nothing dangerous like that in New Zealand,” he said. “It’s a completely different atmosphere. You might find a feral cat, but not much else.”
Janet agreed: “Going through the swamp was a very cool feeling. It was kind of surreal. We saw vultures eating deer, alligators and there were a bunch of turtles walking on the road.
“In New Zealand we don’t have a lot of wildlife coming out on the road like that. We only have the odd possum and rabbits and this time of year, ducks walking with their ducklings.
“But we don’t have alligators and snakes and raccoons. We have kiwi and lots of other birds, but nothing like all those turtles on the road. We stopped the car and pushed them off the pavement because a lot of them were getting run over.”
They toured Louisiana and drove into Mississippi because her son had heard about a big and tall men’s shop he wanted to visit.
Did he find it?
“I’m pretty sure that my Visa bill tells me he did,” she laughed.
Eventually they drove back to Dallas, but Michael opted out of a 14-hour round trip drive to Levelland in West Texas, where he played two seasons at South Plains junior college. Instead they flew to Columbus and drove over to Fairborn, where he showed his mom the WSU campus and the Nutter Center, and then they drove to Niagara Falls.
They finally returned to the Dayton area for a few days, he introduced her to Raiders coach Billy Donlon and finally she flew to Los Angeles and then back to New Zealand.
“The trip was fantastic, just fantastic,” Janet said.
Her son agreed, but added a qualifier: “It was a lot of fun, but it left me exhausted. I did all the driving and by the end of it I didn’t even want to look at a car for a while.”
Developing his game
Through most of his teenage years, Karena was away from home. Because of his size and his budding basketball talent, he had gotten a scholarship to Nelson College, an all-boys boarding school about 260 miles from Christchurch and he spent 4 ½ years there.
During that time, he was invited to play for various youth national teams in New Zealand and ended up traveling to tournaments in Australia, China, Germany, the United States and Singapore, where his mom said he spent six weeks.
His American hoops venture began at South Plains, where in his second season the Texans were 29-6 and the No. 5-rated junior college in the nation. Although schools like Texas Tech, Mercer, Iona and Pacific showed interest, he chose Wright State.
Although he steadily improved as last season went on, the team — decimated by injuries to front-line players — struggled. The Raiders finished 11-20, won three league games and had a 10-game losing streak at season’s end.
“By the end of the year, one of the brightest spots — and obviously there weren’t very many — was Mike’s growth and development,” Donlon said of Karena, who started 30 of 31 games, averaged 9 points and 3.6 rebounds a game and had some stellar outings like his 21-point effort against Illinois-Chicago.
“Some coaches in the league told me on the road in July that they thought Mike coming back was the best offensive inside player in the league,” Donlon said.
“First and foremost it’s a credit to him for his work and it’s also a credit to (assistant coach) Scott Woods who worked with him. There’s no question, as the year went on, he gained confidence and knew ‘I can do this.’
“And he could. Because of his size, he was tough for any team to handle with just one player.”
‘Fantastic’ experience
Donlon said he enjoyed meeting Karena’s mom:
“She’s very charismatic. She’s outgoing and funny. What I liked best was her banter. She tells you what she liked and what she didn’t like here. I appreciated her honesty, her no-holds-barred opinions. She was just a breath of fresh air.”
While there was so much she liked, there were one or two things that became tedious, she said:
“What I found quite hard was the length of time you can travel and the scenery stays just the same. Here at home the scenery changes dramatically every 20 minutes. I could go for a ski today and then within an hour could come down to the ocean and be doing some diving. It’s pretty diverse.”
That said, she summed up her first American adventure with her favorite descriptor: “Fantastic.”
And for that she credited her son:
“I’m always yelling at him when he’s driving in New Zealand, but he was absolutely brilliant here. He made the trip.
“It was a big deal to me, so I was up every morning at 6. He found it a bit hard to get up sometimes, but I said, ‘Hey, time is precious.’ We had long drives every day, we’d see some sights and then get some sleep.
“Experiencing all those things was great, but it was the two weeks I spent with him that was the best. Back in New Zealand he was always away for practice or playing tournaments and I never got to see him for three, four or five days in a row.
“Here it was just the two of us, every day. All that one-on-one time. We really got to know each other.”
And what did she learn?
As she said before:
“He was just bloomin’ awesome.”
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