<Begin Segment 38>

LH: Well, going back again to your sort of -- moving off from your teaching to more to your coaching experiences and stuff like that, how do you think that was sort of, was affected by your life and how do you feel that your coaching really sort of...

FF: Well, that was icing on the cake to get coaching. I always was happy in teaching, but to get, to be, be called over to the high school to be the assistant coach was happiness in itself, but not knowing that I would have the opportunity to become head coach. But when I did, I didn't realize how big a deal it was. It was when I got the coaching job and the newspaper says, "Fujii appointed head basketball coach at Franklin High School," then I said, "Holy man, what am I gonna do?" This is lot of pressure now. 'Cause here I was just staying on the side as assistant and just yelling and screaming, but now, I gotta have a little bit dignity and make the right decisions. And so when I took over, I gotta have the right rhetoric to talk to the team. But I already knew, 'cause I already had been assistant to the first, third and second team, and counseled some of the varsity guys. But then, you know, it's a different bag when you take over the reins. But I always knew art was my main bag, so it wasn't like putting all my eggs in one basket, I didn't want to say coaching was to be my forte. It was to say coaching is part of my life, but not my whole life, teaching was number one and art was number one and then coaching.

And so in my mind, I said, don't be shook up if you're not successful. And first year, it wasn't successful. Four wins, seventeen losses, but you know, I had more nice parties because of defeat. But I had good parties and good times and good memories but since, once you -- the year after that, everything zoomed and we won Southern division three times and city championship once and to me, we started to really roll, and I was pleased, but there was more pressure that way. But to be the first Nikkei, or Nisei in, in Seattle at the time to be a triple, at the time, AAA high school team and the school being 1,500-plus students. And I was real proud, and yet I felt the pressure because I didn't want to be the first Nisei where that, that pride kicks in where you say if another Nisei is hired and I'm a failure, I'm not gonna hire that guy, 'cause if you don't make it look good, or at least be worthy of your position you know, they're not gonna get that opportunity.

So yeah, I wanted to succeed, but not -- to be perfectly honest, never did I put that dream of being the head, I mean, being the championship coach. I thought if I could reach close to that, I'd be happy. But then to win the city championship one year, that was my last year of my high school life. It was quite something. I think that pride, the... I didn't think I had to prove anymore. I felt exhausted, but I loved coaching. 'Cause it was a test on not how great a player you were, or how much you knew about plays. It's about how you handle the kids and their attitude and there's so many factors people don't realize. And to mold the kids without feeling upset and to, to psych them out to be a team member and, and to be, to cherish a lot of the good memories of victory. And I really felt that was really a milestone for me, and to win the city champion. Then I found out that there was many people who used to come to my games, who were the older Niseis. They never told me they came to my games, and I'm not going to look up in the crowd to see who's there. And I think, to me, that made me feel good because, not that I cared, but to find out later after I coached that they used to be at my games and I used to think, "Gee how nice," you know.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.