DOJO DEDICATED TO SOCCER; JAPANESE NATIVE PURSUES DREAM AT THE MASTER'S.

Byline: Rizza Yap Daily News Staff Writer

Nozomu Dojo - known as Paul in the U.S. - is appropriately named.

In Japan, where the American-born The Master's College soccer player was reared, nozomu means hope, something Dojo has gathered in bundles since he decided to pursue dreams of turning professional.

Dojo, a citizen of both the U.S. and Japan, was born in Santa Monica but moved with his family to Japan at age 5. It was there he and his three brothers - Andrew, David and Peter - learned to play soccer.

The others have left the sport. Andrew is busy planning for his wedding, David is a scuba-diving instructor and Peter is a high school student. All live in Hawaii. Paul, the third child at 21, is a junior in his second season with The Master's men's soccer program. His freshman year was spent at Moorpark College.

This season, Dojo is ranked third in scoring for the Mustangs with 14 points from five goals and four assists. Four games remain on their schedule. In 1996, he posted four goals and five assists for 13 points.

Dojo has not gone back to Shiga - his home state on the west side of Japan, near Osaka - since he left four years ago. Nor will he allow himself to return home until his dream is fulfilled.

``One of the promises I made my parents is I wouldn't go back until I became pro,'' Dojo said. ``That's what I'm here for.''

That aspiration also led Dojo to Mexico City, where he stayed with a host family for a year at age 15 in order to play with a club team. It was a move accompanied by consequences.

Outside of Spanish classes taken at a local university, Dojo concentrated solely on soccer while in Mexico. When he returned to Japan, school officials told him he wouldn't be allowed to play his final season. To continue competing, his only option was to join a club team, which was less competitive than the school's.

``As soon as they told me I can't play the next year, (I thought about moving here),'' said Dojo, who fluently speaks Spanish, Japanese and English. ``Education over there is everything. After skipping a year, it's very hard to catch up with your school.

``(My taking a year off) looks bad, but to me it's OK because I've sacrificed so many other things for soccer. But because of what I sacrificed, now I'm here, with another chance for education. So I have no regrets.''

Although strong-willed and independent, Dojo owes much of his success to supportive parents - his father, a pastor, and his mother, an English teacher. Through his family's ties with the church - his father worked in California part-time before moving back to Japan for his first full-time pastorate position - Dojo found a family with which he could reside in America.

He stayed with the Kiras and went to Moorpark High School with their son Jared, Dojo's former Sunday-school classmate when the two were 5. Together, they played high school soccer and were both recruited by The Master's College coach Jim Rickard.

``Paul impressed me the first time he touched the ball,'' Rickard said. ``I felt like I could bring them both here.''

Dojo opted to go to Moorpark College first, to sort out his plans for the future. He transferred the following year, and today, Kira and Dojo are juniors at The Master's and sharing a room in an apartment for five. Both also help out their church by teaching Sunday school. Kira taught this summer; Dojo has been teaching for more than a year.

Kira, who took on the task of teaching Dojo American slang four years ago, said Dojo no longer is the teen-ager too shy to speak English. He said Dojo's openness and athletic abilities have made him a well-known and well-liked person in and outside of school.

``He knows more people than I would ever suspect,'' Kira said. ``So many people love talking to him, from janitors to . . . everyone on the other team when we got to play a soccer game. So many people know of him, and he knows them. They love to see him speak Spanish.''

Dojo, who first learned Spanish in Mexico and practiced it in Japan with his mother's friends from Honduras, actually views his personality as more Latin than Japanese, which traditionally is more conservative.

``I always considered myself more like Latin people because I have a passion for what I do,'' Dojo said. ``There's two things I have love in, and that is God and soccer.''

Teammate and best friend Erik Benitez agrees. Benitez nicknamed Dojo ``Rain Man'' this year, comparing him to Dustin Hoffman's movie character who did little else but count.

``He's so funny because the only thing on his mind is soccer, 24 hours a day,'' Benitez said. ``He's in college, he should be thinking about girls and school, but he doesn't think about anything else, he doesn't care about anything else.

``This whole summer, every day he was out in the sun practicing by himself. Every day for the whole summer. I've never seen such dedication.''

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Photo

Photo: The Master's College soccer player Paul Dojo has traveled far from his home in Japan - to Mexico and the U.S. - pursuing his dream of becoming a pro.

Hans Gutknecht / Daily News