Basketball
Favorite athlete: John Stockton
Favorite team: 76ers and Duke Basketball
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the second round district playoff game against Council Rock North in 2012 which qualified for us for the state playoffs.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting rim-stuffed during a game my freshman year.
Music on your iPod: xxyyxx, Fleet Foxes, Passion Pit, Animal Collective, Bon Iver
Future plans: Undecided
Words to live by: ‘So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ 2 Corinthians 4:18
One goal before turning 30: Go to China
One thing people don’t know about me: I play the ukulele
By Christiaan DeFranco
Joseph Kony has terrorized Uganda and the surrounding African area for a quarter-century. The internationally notorious warlord, who founded the cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army, is a torturer, mass murderer, kidnapper, child rapist and child killer.
The LRA, which initially was viewed as a mainstream political group but soon became violent, has kidnapped tens of thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of kids throughout Uganda and used them as sex slaves. Many boys have been made into child soldiers while young girls have become “wives” for Kony and his commanders.
The LRA often has slaughtered entire villages and forced children to kill their own parents. Children who resist the LRA have had their ears, noses and lips sliced off and been forced to eat their own flesh, or sometimes they’ve had their limbs lopped off and simply been left to die in the jungle.
Last summer, Souderton High School’s John Kanas traveled to Uganda with a small mission group to try to help people who had been victimized by Kony and the LRA.
“It really put things in perspective,” said Kanas, a senior who is the leading scorer for Souderton’s basketball team. “We have issues here in America, but it’s nothing like what they have to deal with there.”
Kanas’ first mission trip was in fourth grade, when he went with his family and four other families to Zambia. When he got older, he did mission work in the United States as well as in Kenya, the Canary Islands and the Dominican Republic.
“All my family grew up in church, so my faith is very important,” he said. “I love to travel, and I try to play a good role for God. It’s important to help people.”
On his two-week trip to Uganda,* which was led by Dr. Karl Benzio, Kanas’ seven-person team included another high school student, a pair of college students and three professional counselors, including a psychiatrist specially trained in trauma. They flew seven hours to London and then eight more to Entebbe, a town of around 80,000 people that is home to Uganda’s only airport. From there it was another 230 miles to Gulu, a northern village where the group spent much of its time.
Many of the people Kanas met had been directly affected by Kony’s army. Some had lost children, some had seen their entire family murdered in front of them, some were in their 20s and had once been abducted by the LRA but managed to escape.
“It’s incredible stuff, for him at that age to be that mature,” Souderton basketball coach Pete Chimera said. “This wasn’t just handing out food and doing readings, even though those things are very important too; these were hardcore therapy sessions.”
Although a number of people in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan haven’t been violently affected by Kony’s LRA, they likely have been displaced by the constant warring. More than 2 million people in the region have been uprooted in the last 25-plus years.
The victims of war and the LRA were the main focus of Kanas and his group, but they also offered mentorship training to try to advance the local culture and quality of life.
“There were lessons on how to be good parents, how to treat kids and treat situations,” Kanas said. “For instance, men there still find it acceptable to beat their wives if they don’t cook a good meal.”
Back in the States, Kanas is focusing on lighter things, like basketball. Souderton is within striking distance of a conference title and hopes to make another foray into the state playoffs. Kanas is averaging 17 points per game, six rebounds and three assists. He also leads the team in steals and dunks.
“He’s such a leader,” Chimera said. “On the court, he’s unbelievable. He’s the most competitive, energetic kid I’ve ever seen. He’s relentless. I’m so glad to coach him. He’s strong, athletic, always around the ball defensively.
“I mean he’s competitive about everything,” Chimera said. “It could be jumping jacks. If there’s a drill that’s not competitive, he’s not interested. The rest of the team picks up on his competitiveness. It’s totally contagious.
“The kids love him. He has a dry sense of humor. He’ll get on you when he has to, and he also knows when not to. He’s very coachable. He listens. He learns. And when he makes mistakes, it’s only when he’s trying to do too much.”
Kanas is a solid student who is being recruited by several Division 3 and Division 2 schools. Right now he’s leaning toward either Messiah College or Eastern University, but he’s not ready to make a decision. Plus some other colleges have jumped into the John Kanas sweepstakes recently.
Kanas doesn’t know what he’ll major in, but wherever he decides to attend, that school will be getting a multi-dimensional student athlete.
“He’s a unique guy,” Chimera said. “One of the days I stopped into the building, I saw John with a sketch pad. He likes art. You wouldn’t expect that from your star athlete.”
That “star” role isn’t one that Kanas played in seasons’ past. He was playing behind guys like Luke Moyer, Ryan Connolly and Mark Wonderling, so he was more of a role player. This season he has flourished in a leadership role.
Still, Kanas keeps it all in perspective.
“It’s just a game,” he said. “When something goes wrong in basketball or in my life, I just remember the people over there in Uganda and what they’re going through.”
For additional information about the two organizations that coordinated Kanas' trip to Uganda, please click on the following links: http://lighthousenetwork.org/ and http://rthm.cc/
