BY ANDREW GREENBLATT

In print | Published October 8, 2009

I’m giving up my column. This week, Life of Greeny will be Life of Yoshi. Following this kid around all week inspired me to highlight my opinions with some reporting. For those of you who don’t know Anthony Yoshimura, he may be the most unselfish, humble and admirable person you will ever meet. If this account isn’t enough, ask anyone who knows him.

Anthony Yoshimura’s stiff and seemingly robotic frame melts into a masterpiece of fluidity. He glides upward with picturesque form to pluck a volleyball out of the air.

With a whisk of an arm he drives the sphere downward with enough force to dent the hardwood floor.

But even with his 36.5-inch vertical leap, tenacious work ethic and electric mobility, Yoshimura will always be a practice player.

It’s critical to appreciate the people who work behind the scenes to make our careers as athletes possible. Yoshi is extraordinary though, because he has blurred the lines between the background and the forefront.

Think of the drive and effort it must take to be the leader and the star while getting only the recognition and satisfaction of a water boy. It seems that Yoshimura will never compete at the college level, but just try telling that to the women’s volleyball team.

“If we lost him, it would change our team dynamic for the worse,” said Hillary Santana ’12.

“He makes it so we have a chance to get better,” Allie Coleman ’13 added.

“He’s the heart (of the team), we’re playing for him too not just each other,” gushed Johanna Bond ’10.

Yoshimura, a member of the class of 2012, wears the hat of team manager, making $8.80 an hour to keep stats during games and assist with the squad’s pre-game warm-up, but as anyone involved with the program can recognize, he’s just as important as anyone on the team.

Here’s the thing: it’s not about the hours for which he gets paid; it’s about the hours for which he doesn’t.

A soft-spoken and reserved sophomore with a dry wit and infinite humility from Santa Barbara, Calif., Yoshimura grew up a volleyball junkie. He played for Santa Barbara High School which last season finished No. 15 on ESPN’s Rise Fab 50 rankings. His athleticism and skills could have landed him on any Division III team in the country, but he instead elected to forego a competitive career in favor of Swarthmore’s academics. He intends to declare a physics major and currently has a 3.9 GPA.

“I didn’t think I had much of a future in volleyball,” Yoshimura said. “I’m a retired volleyball player. I’m no longer training for the sole purpose of competing, but I still try to improve every time I play.”
He had no intention of working with the women’s team when he arrived at Swarthmore last fall. His dad bought him a volleyball for college and when defensive specialist Lisa Shang ’12 saw the ball in his dorm, she invited him to practice.

“Luckiest thing ever,” said Yoshimura of the invitation.

Head coach Harleigh Chwastyk will only tolerate people in the gym that will benefit the team. Within two minutes of watching Yoshimura play, she had made her decision, and he’s been to every practice since.

Yoshimura’s generosity came at a price however, as he truly sealed the deal on his collegiate playing days (including if he were to play in graduate school), forfeiting years of competitive eligibility in favor of working with the women’s team.

As Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski once said, “I don’t believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don’t promote teamwork; standards do.” Yoshimura is this team’s constant standard.

“First of all, love your teammates,” Yoshimura said. “Love what you do. Be excited to improve. Be excited for that opportunity to play every day. If I could just convey that to them – that it’s a really good thing for you to be able to do what you love for the people you love – that’s when you can get extraordinary things to happen.” That’s the standard, and true to what coach K. believes, he lives it.
“Seeing how talented he is and knowing he’ll never get to play… I think the players feel for that,” Chwastyk said.

Santana echoes that sentiment. “If you see someone do something that amazing with so much heart and dedication, it makes you feel like you have to match it or beat it to not let them down,” she said.

Yoshimura brings it every day, showing off his spindly athleticism with gravity-defying dives and endless hustle.

He spent the summer working on his jumping ability and has unselfishly adjusted his game to play to the women’s net height, which is approximately seven inches lower than the men’s net height, and spends practices simulating the competition of Swarthmore’s upcoming opponent rather than working on his own skills.

“With the number of hours I devote to the team, I should be majoring in girls’ volleyball,” joked Yoshimura. “I consider it a full-time job even when I’m not in practice. I’m still their manager. I still have to think about what I can do next practice – things I can tell them. … That’s just how I roll I guess.”

“Right now I play vicariously through this volleyball team,” he added. “It’s really important to me to see them improve. That is the purpose of my career right now.”

He’s naturally quiet, which serves him as an observer who leads by example. To the untrained eye, during a two-hour practice, it would appear that he merely mumbles, but his soft-spoken attitude amplifies the times when he does speak.

“When he has something to say, it has so much meaning and substance behind it,” Chwastyk said. “The players understand he can do exactly what he’s asking of them.”

Whatever he’s saying and however he’s saying it, something’s working. “When he’s on your team [in practice], you want to play harder just because he’s there,” Kat Montemurro ’13 said.

“You don’t want to let him down because he goes all out for everything,” added co-captain Sarah Lambert ’11.

With the ability of a player, the approach of a manager and the demeanor of a coach, Yoshimura perfectly shifts between his roles, constantly wary of when he is needed without overstepping his bounds. But what really makes him so extraordinary is that all of his efforts are driven towards the success of his teammates.

Unlike myself and athletes in my position, who workout and practice both to help our teams and to improve ourselves, Yoshimura will only attain gratification through the success of other people.

And to honor that, one simple sports column just doesn’t seem like enough.

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