TicketsOct. 17, 2005
by Becky Hart, Sports Communications Student Assistant
For sophomore free safety Haruki Nakamura, it's all about family. Whether it's on the field with his "brothers" on the team, or at home with mother, brother and sister, Nakamura relies on his families to help him reach his goals and become the player and person he is today.
The Elyria, Ohio native considers being around his teammates as his favorite thing about Bearcat football because, "we're a big family out there on the field. Everybody's your brother." Nakamura also feels that his actual family is the most important part of his life because of the motivation, attitudes, and lessons they have taught him.
The start of his football career can be credited to the mischievousness of his older brother, Yoshi, who snuck him into a community football program when he was a child against their mother's wishes. "She actually wanted me to stick with judo and baseball," said Haruki. "My mom didn't know that I had joined a team at first."
Fortunately for Bearcat fans, he decided to stick with football.
Now, even more people are starting to notice Haruki on the football field. When he almost quit playing the sport as a junior at St. Edward's High School to focus on wrestling and baseball, the people closest to him reminded him of the passion he had developed for football.
"I took a couple of weeks off and I finally realized that football is what I wanted to do and how much I started to miss it and that that's something in my life. That's what my love is going to be for," decided Nakamura. "It's going to be football."
The UC coaching staff also took notice of his passion for the sport. He was originally recruited by offensive coordinator Don Treadwell, who was a coach at another university at the time. When Treadwell became a Bearcat, so did Haruki. According to Nakamura, when head coach Mark Dantonio saw him play in high school at Treadwell's suggestion, he was impressed by how "I flew around the field." Nakamura cancelled the visit he had scheduled with another school and came to Cincinnati instead, beginning his career as a Bearcat.
After finally arriving at UC, Nakamura learned in the shadow and followed in the footsteps of four-year starter Doug Monaghan. It is because of Monaghan's physical style of play that Nakamura developed into the tough player that he is now.
"Even though I was real physical in high school," said Haruki, "watching him and how he played helped my toughness and the way I play the game. Play it fast. Play it hard. Bring the hits as hard as you can."
Nakamura is bringing the hits hard now and he's leaving his mark on his opponents and on the team. Through the first five games this season, Nakamura is leading the team in tackles with 39. He has also filled the leadership role perfectly that comes with playing free safety, taking the mentality that he's someone who has to make the play and be productive in order for his team to be successful.
In Haruki's mind, if he can make the play, good things will happen, including posting a team-high in tackles. "Sometimes you do set goals like that and it's always good to do things like that, but the biggest thing for me is to go out there and play as hard as I can. If that stacks up tackles or if that stacks up interceptions, then that just shows how much hard work I put in," he said.
Hard work is a lesson that has been strengthened in him during his time with his football family, but was started by his mother and brother. Haruki credits his mom with providing him and his siblings with some of their greatest opportunities despite being a single parent.
"My father died when I was six," said the self-proclaimed mama's boy. "For her to put us through the best high school she could, give us what she could. All that effort she put into us is so amazing to me."
His older brother also contributed to his desire to constantly give the extra effort, especially when it came to athletics. "Ever since I was little, he has always pushed me to be the best athlete I could be, always telling me to work hard because if I didn't work hard I wasn't going to get anywhere," said Haruki of Yoshi. "That's something I've taken to heart. Hard work is always going to get you somewhere."
"Competition" and "winning" were two words also frequently heard in the Nakamura house when Haruki was growing up. "Everyone in my family is into athletics," said Haruki. His younger sister is "an awesome volleyball player" and it would be fair to call his brother an awesome wrestler as well. Yoshi competed at the Olympic Trials to earn a spot with the delegation bound for Athens. The older Nakamura took sixth place despite having completed only eight months of training, something Haruki considers "phenomenal." "My brother is one of the people that I learned my competitiveness from, my attitude of winning."
Haruki's love of competition developed mostly through judo, a sport where success runs through the family's veins. "I never had a losing mentality. It started when I was little, doing judo, growing up with my brother and my dad teaching me and developing a competitive attitude."
While his mother is a fourth degree black belt in the sport, his father was an eighth degree black belt. Haruki's brother and sister have nine national judo championships between them. Even Haruki has a national title.
It comes as no surprise then that Nakamura's goals when he came to Cincinnati were to contribute to the team immediately, to become an All-American, and "to help my team as much as possible to win." Nor is it a surprise that one of the most memorable moments of his young career involves winning. Although he didn't play in the Bearcats' win over the Miami RedHawks in 2004, Haruki says that seeing the seniors run across the field to take back the Victory Bell is "something that's always going to stick with me."
Winning is something that Nakamura is confident the Bearcats will take with them as they begin play in the BIG EAST Conference. He is also looking forward to tackling the challenges the new conference will place before them. "I expect a lot of intensity coming from our team," Haruki said. "We're the underestimated team. We're a young team and everyone is saying, `They're not good. They're not good enough to come close to winning.'" Nakamura knows otherwise, though. "I'm always positive, so I always think we're going to win the BIG EAST."
Haruki's goals off the field are simple for now. "I want to graduate with a degree and get a job. That's every college student's dream and goal." Although he isn't yet sure what he wants to do after he graduates, he knows he will be prepared for whatever path he takes. Nakamura feels that if he continues to work hard, improve, and raise his level of competitiveness over the next couple seasons, he can put himself in a position to play in the NFL.
The effort he puts into football will also help him outside of athletics however. "The adversity you go through on the field can be the same adversity that you go through in life." And as long as he has the support of his "brothers" on the field and his family back home, it is certain that Haruki Nakamura will be a success.