HUSKIES Game Day #5 - GoHuskies.com

HUSKY PROFILE / KYLE FUKUCHI
by Steve Hitchcock
ry as he might to focus on his finance analysis texts,
or the weekly soccer gameplan, Kyle Fukuchi can’t
stop his mind from wandering back to the North
Shore of Oahu, in Fukuchi’s home state of Hawai’i.
“Once in a while I surfed,” he recalls. “Mostly, though, I
stuck to body-boarding. I liked that a lot better.”
It seems hard to believe, but for now, this senior midfielder
is quite content giving up the beach for a chance to continue
playing soccer while working towards a career as a financial
planner.
To that end, Fukuchi interned during spring quarter at
Pacific Capital Resource Group, which in turn agreed to sponsor
Fukuchi’s application for a financial planner’s license.
“Usually people wait until they graduate,” Fukuchi says,
“but I figured since school didn’t start until September 30th
and we had to be here August 15th for preseason soccer practices,
I had a lot of time. We play soccer for two hours a day
and lift weights for an hour, but the rest of the day there’s
nothing to do. I’m trying to get a head start on the competition.”
Kyle Kaleiluakiliopu (pronounced: Kah-lay-LOO-uh-keelee-OH-poo)
Fukuchi was born in Honolulu, where he was an
all-league selection in football and soccer, and took third in
the 800 meters at the 1999 state track championships. In
addition to being a gifted athlete, Fukuchi carried a 4.11
grade point average on a four-point scale, earning extra credit
for advanced-placement work. When comparing colleges,
Fukuchi looked just as closely at academic standings as he did
at athletic ones. The University of Washington — with an outstanding
business school and a men’s soccer program that
had been to the NCAA Championships each year since 1995
— practically jumped off the page.
“What it came down to is that the UW has a good business
school and a great soccer program,” Fukuchi says. “Being on
the West Coast was nice, too, because it was close to home.
There was really nothing available in Hawai’i — there’s no
Division-I soccer, so this was the best choice.”
Besides developing his dreams of working in the corporate
world, Fukuchi has been busy leading his team on the soccer
field. The midfielder enters his senior season on a team with
13 new players, making it even more important for the team’s
veteran players to display their leadership skills.
“I try to lead by example,” he says. “We’ve got a bunch of
new guys and they aren’t used to the program. A lot of guys
come to the seniors with questions. We try to give them the
best answers that we can and guide them the right way.”
Fukuchi knows that with so many young players, there is
added pressure for the seniors to perform well on the field.
“I want to look back on this year and say, ‘I gave it my
best, we did well and we couldn’t have done any better,’” he
says. “I think we’ve prepared ourselves, and I’ve prepared
myself personally, to be in the situation where we can have a
54 HUSKIES Gameday
great season. There’s a lot of things I want to accomplish,
both personally and as a team. Some of them go hand-inhand.”
As the season progresses, it appears as if Fukuchi’s future
grows brighter. With the Huskies running an offensive scheme
using three attacking midfielders, coach Dean Wurzberger is
optimistic about what the season may hold.
“He’s had spot duty up until now, but we need his leadership,”
Wurzberger says. “We’re playing a system which is right
down his alley. I think things have fallen into place for Kyle.
There is no question he’s on top of his game and is the best
he’s ever been for us. We’re excited about the things he can
do.”
Fukuchi’s excited too, but while preparing for Pac-10 foes,
he is also preparing for his financial planner’s license exam.
“It’s a big test,” he says nervously. “Two hundred fifty multiple
choice questions, over six hours.”
With Fukuchi’s talent and smarts, the future — be it soccer
or finance — is indeed a “multiple-choice” question.
Fukuchi
notched the
game-winning
goal in the
Huskies’ 2-1
victory over Air
Force in 2001.