2010 Keo Nakama Invitational - Hawaii Swimming

this article was taken from the
club and how we would be farmed
out to our “Parent” club... Hawaii
Swimming Club.
“My swimming coach, was Coach
Sakamoto,” Coach Nakama said. “He
taught me how to swim fast and he
can help you.” “I would like all of
you to swim for him and represent
Hawaii Swimming Club.”
Aside from coaching at Farrington
and Leilehua High School he was
the coach at McKinley High School.
McKinley High School, under his direction,
won the Territorial Championships
over Kaimuki High School,
by a few points he said. But we were
his only age group team he had ever
coached.
My brief experience with Coach is
one I’ll cherish forever!
He was a guiding light for me and
showed me how to persevere. How to
set goals and do my best to accomplish
them. He gave me a chance to
be successful.
I still call him Coach.
The author of this article now coaches the
Parent team, Hawaii Swimming Club, and
took Coach Nakama’s advice to coach
Hawaii Swim Club with the guidance of the
heart.
OHIO NEWS BUREAU, INC., CLEVELAND, OHIO;
SEPTEMBER 13, 1943
Kio Nakama, O.S.U. Swim Champ
Saves Life of Sailor !
Columbus, Ohio, September 13 – “They also serve who only stand
and wait.”
First spoken by a blind poet more than 300 years ago it has reverberated
down the halls of time but never more vividly recalled than
a few days ago on the Ohio State campus by a little Hawaiian boy
thousands of miles away from his homeland.
It all started a little more than a year ago when Kio Nakama, a
member of the Ohio State Varsity swimming team and one of the
greatest natators in the country was rejected by the Army because
of flat feet.
Dejected, downhearted and lonesome, little Kio threw himself into
his school work in an effort to forget his disappointment. Majoring
in physical education the youngster started his pratice teaching.
He volunteered to help teach swimming to the Navy Recognition
school students.
Kio asked for the hard cases. Men who couldn’t swim a stroke
were turned over to him for instruction, all part of his practice
teaching.
One case in particular claimed his attention. A young lieutenant
from Princeton not only could not swim but held a strong antipathy
toward water. He was assigned to Nakama for instruction.
Weeks and weeks of work followed. Patient, painstaking work.
Hour after hour in the pool but at last the lieutenant mastered the
technique.
Came graduation from the Recognition School the lieutenant was
assigned to the Helena, everyone by this time knows the fate of
that ship.
Came a letter a few days ago from the lietenant to one of his instructors:
“tell the little Hawaiian boy I was in the water for more
than an hour and with his patient teaching I wouldn't be writing
this letter. He saved my life.”