Kawabuchi Has Been Center of Attention, Controversy at Mission Viejo

For a kid from the west coast of Japan, Tsukasa Kawabuchi certainly has had an impact on Orange County high school swimming.

In his two previous years at Mission Viejo High School, Kawabuchi was the center of attention, most of it unwelcomed.

He has muddled through eligibility hassles, which cost him nearly an entire high school season. Kawabuchi’s mere presence in the Southern Section 4-A meet last season was enough to spark a controversy and nearly give Mission Viejo the championship.

All of which left Kawabuchi wondering what the fuss was all about.

“I had no idea what the problem was,” Kawabuchi said. “I just wanted to swim.”

Kawabuchi, a senior, has trained with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, one of the top club teams in the nation, since 1987. He has improved to a point where he is one of the top sprinters in Japan.

However, while his career with the Nadadores has gone well, his high school swimming career has included a lot of finger-pointing from coaches at other schools.

When Kawabuchi came to the United States to swim for the Nadadores, he enrolled at Mission Viejo High School. He also joined the Diablo swim team, which has won 14 Southern Section 4-A championships in the past 15 years.

Other coaches attribute that success to the number of Nadadore swimmers on the Diablo roster. Kawabuchi was viewed as just another import.

His sophomore season went smoothly until after the 1988 South Coast League finals.

Mission Viejo High School Coach Mike Pelton and school officials said they believed he was in a foreign-exchange program, thus eligible to compete in high school athletics. However, the day after the league meet, Pelton discovered that Kawabuchi was not listed in the foreign-exchange program.

School officials notified the Southern Section and Kawabuchi was ruled ineligible to compete in the 4-A championship meet.

“When Tsukasa arrived, he gave us a slip of paper that said he was in the program,” Pelton said. “But when I ran the routine eligibility check after the league meet, he wasn’t there. I still don’t know what happened.”

Under Southern Section rules, Kawabuchi had to sit out one year from his last competition. Because he didn’t become eligible until the day after the league finals in 1989, it appeared that Kawabuchi would miss the Southern Section meet again.

However, on the day after the league meet, the Diablos held a dual meet against Santa Margarita. Kawabuchi swam qualifying times in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles.

Because of the timing of the meet, some coaches from other high schools were angry. Although Pelton had not broken any rules, they believed he had violated the spirit of fair play.

In fact, several coaches had T-shirts made up that said “Southern Section Championships: Locals Only,” which the players wore at the 4-A meet.

The fact that Kawabuchi won the 50 and 100 freestyles angered opposing coaches further.

“It was something that hadn’t been done,” Pelton said. “I think that had more to do with it. The meet had been arranged a few weeks early. They were a free-lance team and needed to get some swimmers qualified for the Southern Section meet.”

Kawabuchi shrugs when asked about the furor surrounding his qualifying for the meet.

“It was hard to watch all season and not get to swim,” Kawabuchi said. “I wanted to be a part of the team. I liked being with the team, it was fun.”

Kawabuchi has swam without controversy this season and has continued to improve as a sprinter.

In the U.S. Swimming senior nationals last week, Kawabuchi had a time of 20.9 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle, which is less than a second off the top time of the No. 1 sprinter in Japan.

“He just gets better and better,” Pelton said. “Two years ago, if you would have asked him about the 1992 Olympics, I don’t think he would have said he could make it. Today, I think he knows he can get there.”

Kawabuchi, who was born in Akashi, Japan, was a late bloomer as a competitive swimmer. Although he learned to swim at the age of 7, he didn’t begin racing until almost three years later.

Kawabuchi joined the Japanese Athletics Swim School when he was 13. A year later, Osamu Gushi his club coach in Japan, arranged for Kawabuchi to train with Nadadore Coach Terry Stoddard. Gushi and Stoddard had been friends for 10 years and Gushi had frequently sent swimmers to swim with the Nadadores, Pelton said.

The club paid for the trip and the Nadadores arranged a legal guardian in Mission Viejo, Pelton said. Kawabuchi returns home in the summer to see his family, but comes back in September for more training and school.

Kawabuchi was against coming to the United States at first.

“I wanted to go to high school in Japan,” Kawabuchi said. “Then I realized this was a great opportunity for me to become a better swimmer.”

Kawabuchi was able to adjust quickly to the American way of life, although, at first, the language was a problem. He learned English in Japan, but was not ready for the slang.

But Kawabuchi has been able to adapt and has become a frequent visitor of malls and fast-food restaurants.

“I have never shopped so much in my life,” Kawabuchi said.

Kawabuchi has enjoyed the United States so much, he plans to attend college here, at least through the 1992 Olympics. He also plans to continue working out with the Nadadores to attain his goal of representing Japan in Barcelona.

“The Olympics is my goal now,” Kawabuchi said. “I never thought about the Olympics much until two years ago. I didn’t think I was good enough. If I do make it, it will be because of my training here.”