Yoshito Sagawa set two goals for his swimmers, get a college education and be the best swimmer you can be. YOSHITO SAGAWA / SWIM COACH
His love was making swimmers
the best they could beBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comThe 82-year old longtime coach died Oct. 16.
He was born in Honolulu and was a retired employee of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
Sagawa's first interest was gymnastics which he learned at Palama Settlement. Earlier this year, Sagawa recalled how he was asked to join the McKinley High School swim team as a diver for the Yale Meet, the only interscholastic swim meet held in the 1930s.
"I never dove before, but they told me, don't worry, if you join you automatically will get a gold medal since McKinley wins the championship every year. I was in gymnastics and it was good for diving," said Sagawa while compiling recollections with Evelyn Kawamoto-Konno, Sonny Tanabe and Hiroshi Yamauchi.
He also competed for the Nuuanu YMCA and was on the 1939 team that went to the National YMCA Swimming and Diving Championships in San Francisco and returned with the championship trophy.
Sagawa felt he and Nuuanu Y teammate Tom Tanaka and Arthur Rutherford of Roosevelt High School would have had a chance to make the U.S. Olympic team had it not been for World War II.
Shortly after winning the 1939 championship, the Nuuanu Y swim coach resigned, and, since he was the oldest member, Sagawa was named coach.
Then, the reality hit him. He was a diver, not a swimmer. Sagawa got a book about the 1932 Japanese Olympic Swim team and another from the UH physical education department written by Dave Armbruster at the University of Iowa.
Whenever Sagawa had questions about training methods and technique, he wrote Armbruster and received pages of information in return. He also adopted coach Soichi Sakamoto's method of filming his swimmers.
Over the years Sagawa coached Olympian Ford Konno; Tom Nekota, his first swimmer to earned a college scholarship (University of Oregon); Godfrey Kang; Carl Uyeda; Wally Nakamoto; Ricky Tokushima and many others. His swimmers went on to compete for Ohio State, Columbia, Indiana, Iowa and UH.
"He was very technical a very professional person. He was always pushing you to do better. As an example, he would put me in older age groups instead of younger ones and I understand now it was the challenge," said Walter Miyashiro, who competed for the Nuuanu Y in the early '50s.
"He also did something I never understood for a long time. He didn't encourage parents to watch practice at the Y. When I grew up and became a coach, I thought maybe he didn't want the kids to be distracted.
Sagawa also started swimming programs at St. Louis and Kamehameha.
He is survived by his wife Jane and brother Francis H. Sagawa.
The memorial service is Sunday at 4 p.m. at Diamond Head Mortuary. Casual attire. No flowers.