By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Transferring to a new school is never easy. When you come from another country and need to learn a new language, fitting in becomes even more of a challenge.
Those were the hurdles 15-year-old Kayari Suganuma faced when her family left Japan and came to Northern Kentucky two years ago. She was a newcomer no one knew anything about, but her ability to play fast-pitch softball changed all that.
In her second season as starting shortstop and lead-off hitter for the Cooper High School softball team, Suganuma has established herself as one of the area’s top players.
Last year, she was voted to the Northern Kentucky Division I All-Star Team as an eighth-grader and she’s off to an even better start this spring. In Cooper’s first nine games, she batted .727 (18 of 25) with only one strike out. She also stole 15 bases without being thrown out and scored 11 runs for the Jaguars.
“You always want to see kids succeed, but it’s even better when she’s as good a kid as she is,” said Cooper coach Tony Fields. “She’s extremely humble. I have to do all the bragging for her because that’s not her. She doesn’t do that.”
Suganuma wears the No. 51 jersey on the Cooper team. That’s the same number worn by Ichiro Suzuki, who started his professional baseball career in Japan and then became a record-setting hitter in Major League Baseball.
Her own transition from one team to another has also gone well, according to coach Fields.
“As the season went on (last year) she got more and more comfortable being around everybody,” Fields said. “And now, this year, her English is so much better that she understands more and she’s really loosened up and laughs a lot. She is an absolute pleasure to coach.”
Suganuma’s father works for Toyota. He moved his family here two years ago when he was transferred to the North America headquarters in Erlanger. The local facility will be closing at the end of this year and relocated in Texas, but she hopes to finish high school at Cooper.
“Without softball, my American life wouldn’t be this great,” she said. “I’m really thankful to my teammates and coaches and (for) an opportunity to play softball in the U.S.”
Suganuma said her grandfather in Japan is a huge baseball fan and got her interested in the country’s most popular sport. She began playing on softball club teams in her native land when she was in the fourth grade.
In Japan, she was used primarily as a catcher on club teams. When she tried out for the Cooper team, however, the coaches put her at shortstop when they saw her agility and strong throwing arm.
“The first practice we had with her,” coach Fields said, “she was throwing the ball across the diamond and even though she was a little rusty the girls who had the best arms on the team were saying, ‘Coach, where did we get her?’”
Suganuma is a left-handed hitter whose speed and bat control make her a tough out for opponents. Her on-base plus slugging percentage in the first nine games this season was a chart-topping 1.477.
“She’s exceptional at slapping the ball and she’s an exceptional bunter,” Fields said. “But what she’s really good at it is faking a bunt and pulling back and swinging straight through for a base hit.”
Suganuma honed her fielding and hitting skills playing on the club softball teams in Japan that have rigorous training regimes. She said coaches there are very strict and openly criticize players for making even the smallest mistakes.
“In U.S., I feel more freedom on plays,” Suganuma said. “Coaches are nice to me and really take care of me. My teammates are friendly. I learned English from them. They made me more social. I’m much more comfortable playing softball in U.S. rather than Japan.”
The freshman shortstop has been hampered by a sprained ankle the last couple of weeks, according to her coach. But she doesn’t want to come out of the lineup because she enjoys being on the field with her high school teammates.
“Our girls when out of their way to be supportive of her because they know it was tough for her to come over (to America) and make adjustments,” Fields said. “They love her so much, and one reason is because she’s so humble. You praise her and her head goes down and she just says thank you.”