Brian Derby expects big things from one of the recent alumni of his popular youth and high school football lineman camp.

"Max Vinci will be the Derby Camp’s first Nobel Prize winner," the former University of Hawaii star center said. "Unbelievably smart and a great kid. Not the greatest athlete but works so hard and made himself a starter (at Kailua) as a sophomore."

He’s already got a huge head start academically. While still in high school, Vinci became a published researcher, working alongside professors with UH-Manoa’s department of physics and astronomy, from the time he was a freshman, producing with them a paper on energy transport.

He transferred to Castle for his senior year so he could take advanced science classes. This summer he was selected as one of five HMSA Kaimana Awards distinguished scholarship awardees.

Vinci credits Derby for helping him get noticed by the nation’s top colleges. Not the top football factories, the top academic institutions — like Occidental College and Caltech, which he will attend the next five years.

"He’s been there with me the entire time, helped me become the type of football player I am," Vinci said. "It wasn’t the published paper that got me in. What opened the door initially was my football ability."

Vinci added that the Hawaii connection of head coach Doug Semones and assistants Darnell Arceneaux and Brian Smith made Occidental attractive.

He could have walked on at a Division I football program, but his goals are more about academic pursuits than sports.

"I talked with my (high school) coaches and Coach Derby, they told me that was a possibility. But talking with family and thinking it over, Division I or I-AA football was not an option for me for what I want to do in life because I wouldn’t have time to do the research I want to do. My future lies into going into astrophysics."

When he was a baby and young child, college sports and academics seemed a huge longshot at best. Vinci said doctors misdiagnosed a hypothyroid condition. Specialists predicted he would never grow taller than 5-feet-4 and his IQ would never exceed 70.

"When I was 6 I could not yet speak in complete sentences," Vinci said.

But when he was in fourth grade the diagnosis was corrected, he received proper treatment and moved from special education classes into the mainstream.

The defensive tackle is now 5-11 and 265 pounds, and when last tested at age 12 for a program for gifted children his IQ was 148.

Vinci’s success is also impressive, considering all five members of his immediate family have had major health challenges.

"Things have been hard on all of us, but we’ve all come through it stronger together," he said.

At an age when many think the universe revolves around them, Vinci said his goal is to learn more about its origin.

"’Dark matter’ has not been proven to exist, but scientists believe it is what the universe is made of. It might be what caused the big bang and the universe to expand. It can help us learn more about the possibility of other life and possibility of living on other planets. …"

And he will play a little college football along the way, just for fun.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.