[ HIGH SCHOOLS ]
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Senior Noa Sakamoto is the state champion in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle and holds five school records -- three individual-- at Punahou.
Punahou Phenom
Noa Sakamoto is raising the bar
for excellence on the Buffanblu's
boys swimming team
For Punahou swimmer Noa Sakamoto, the ultimate satisfaction often comes in a state of utter fatigue. When he's physically spent, one might say he's content.
"I've always enjoyed working hard," said Sakamoto. "I really like the feeling when you're tired and coach gives you a hard set (in practice) -- and you work hard and you get through it. After practice, you feel really good about yourself. You could go home and sleep the rest of the day, but you feel like you've accomplished something. For me, a lot of the fun is the work, the practice."
Spend a few moments with Sakamoto, one of the state's top swimmers, and it quickly becomes clear that his daily road map for living is marked by a set of challenges.
"If you turn him loose on something, there isn't anything he can't do -- he's that good," said Punahou coach Jeff Meister. "This is a kid we have to write (Punahou's daily) workouts for to see if we can challenge him. We've gotten a better feel for it now, but he's exceptional. We always try to write everything we do based on our most talented kids, but with him, we've had to move him up a notch."
Sakamoto was the state champion in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle last February at the Local Motion State Swimming and Diving Championships, and currently holds five school records at Punahou -- three individual -- in addition to competing on two record-breaking relay teams.
"He could probably break them all over the course of this season if we wanted to try and do it that way," said Meister. "We're going to move him around (from event to event) quite a bit this year. He's special. He's not the biggest guy around in terms of his physical attributes, but he can go.
"He has a huge heart. His desire is probably unmatched, and his technique is good. He's probably the fastest kid Hawaii has produced -- certainly the fastest in a long time -- and he has great balance between his academics, his athletics and his social life."
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Noa Sakamoto plans to attend Stanford in the fall after visiting, among other campuses, Harvard and Northwestern.
Sakamoto's exploits in the pool, coupled with a 3.85 grade-point average, made him much sought after by college recruiters. He visited Harvard and Northwestern, among others, before choosing Stanford. Before joining the Cardinal in August, he will have already taken part in the Olympic Trials in Long Beach, Calif., which are scheduled for this July.
By the summer, Sakamoto's list of accomplishments will also likely have grown. Only two weeks ago, he posted a career-best 4:27.19 in the 500 freestyle while competing for the Kamehameha Swim Club, and he hopes to challenge the national high school record of 4 minutes and 19.54 seconds, which was set in 2002 by Frank Crippin of Germantown Academy, Pa.
"That's kind of a reach, but that's my goal," he said. "I think if I put in the work and stay focused, it's realistic. I'm looking forward to the high school swim season. I'm not sure what I'm going to compete in yet, but I'm hoping I can improve my times."
Although he has already signed his letter of intent to swim for Stanford, Sakamoto's still approaching each workout as if still in pursuit of a scholarship.
"It feels good (to have made the decision), but at the same time, I want to impress the (Stanford) coaches," said Sakamoto, who won a national 5K championship in Virginia last summer.
"I'd like to swim fast before I get there and kind of show them what I can do. I like to keep trying to push myself. My coaches and my teammates have helped to push me. Everyone steps up in practice, and it makes for a good working environment at both Punahou and the Kamehameha Swim Club. That's one of the driving factors of my swimming -- the competition in practice as well as the meets."
Sakamoto was around the sport of swimming at an early age, thanks in part to his sister, Sarah, who swam for Punahou. Their father, Dr. Charles Sakamoto, also swam for Punahou and went on to compete for Princeton in college.
"I started swimming when I was 8 years old," he said.
"I was always around the pool, although I wasn't necessarily swimming. The coaches kept telling me to join up. I was kind of shy, but one day I finally did. You play a lot of games (in practice) at that age, and the coaches did a good job of keeping me interested.
"In eighth grade I did some morning practices," he continued.
"It's a big step up when you get up at 5:20 a.m. to be at the pool by 6. In my junior year, I stopped playing water polo, and that was when things kind of fell into place. I had made the Junior National Team, and I decided that swimming was very important to me and I stepped up my training."
