This feature originally appeared in the Fall edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.


In spring of 2015, Cal's cross country and track & field coaches got an email from a rising senior in high school, one of many they receive throughout the year from kids looking to attend school and compete for the Golden Bears.
 
However, they don't get too many from Japan, and that message from Takeshi Okada stood out.
 
Okada, now in his fourth year at Cal this fall, didn't have the smoothest journey to get to his senior year, but through tireless perseverance he's become an all-academic student and significant contributor in both track and cross country.
 
Apart from his initial interest in Cal, one big problem stood in front of Okada – he didn't speak much English. Okada came to campus on an unofficial visit during the summer of 2015 and didn't say much at all to the coaches.
 
"He came with his dad," cross country head coach Shayla Houlihan said. "His dad spoke English pretty well, but it was Takeshi's first time in the States. The communication was difficult. It had to go from us to his dad to Takeshi."
 
That gave Houlihan some doubts about whether Okada could survive in Cal's rigorous academic environment while also excelling in cross country and track despite his promising running ability. But after the visit they received another email from Okada, this one indicating he understood exactly what coaches had said.
 
For Okada, the reasons for coming to Cal were twofold. He had just come off finishing second at the Under-18 Nationals in Japan and earned a berth at the World Championships in Ukraine. While there, he saw athletes from around the world and realized that if he wanted to compete internationally, he needed to leave Japan to experience training in a different environment.
 
Okada also thought Cal would make a good fit academically and earning a degree from the world's No. 1 public school would change his life.
 
"If I finish my running career, I still have more than 50 years of my life," Okada said. "That is a big deal. That is why I didn't want to just focus on athletics."
 
The language barrier was going to be difficult to overcome. Okada learned to read and write English around the age of 13. However, he and his classmates were learning from non-native speakers and didn't get much practice speaking the language.
 
"It was July 3 when I first came to Cal," Okada said. "The next day, I went to a July 4th party with my teammates – their English was not what I learned in Japan. They spoke so fast. I was trying to talk some, but I couldn't understand what they were saying."
 
That was the beginning of an arduous transition for Okada.
 
"Communication was difficult that first year. Talking face-to-face was hard," Houlihan said. "But he did a nice job of following up with emails so I knew how he was feeling. His workouts were really good, but the races were difficult. It was frustrating for him, and me too because I want to see him succeed."
 
Okada redshirted during his initial cross country season. Once track & field came around in the spring, he competed in both the 1500 and 5000 meters at the Pac-12 Championships and finished last in both races. His academics also presented a struggle as he wasn't comfortable speaking in class.
 
Yes, there were signs of progress. Okada practiced English every day, especially to fellow freshmen Garrett Corcoran, Kai Benedict and Paul Zeiss. Some of the upperclassmen, such as Leland Later, took him under their wings to help make the transition easier. When he was alone, Okada would read words aloud to work on his pronunciation. Late in his freshman season, he started training for the 3000 steeplechase, an event that has since become his own.
 
All of the little things helped.
 
"It's amazing what he has been able to do," Houlihan said. "From freshman to sophomore year, he made a huge jump. Normally, if you struggle your freshman year it can impact the next year, but that wasn't the case with Takeshi."
 
Okada posted two top-20 finishes in cross country as a sophomore, and he continued his upward trend during track season in his new event, the steeplechase. He took second at the Big Meet and posted wins at the Cardinal Classic and the Brutus Hamilton open before claiming a fifth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships.
 
Success created more confidence, and Okada began integrating himself more and more on campus. After concentrating on assimilating to America as a freshman, he started going to meetings of the Cal Japan Club as a sophomore. The group offered him a place with other people who understood the culture he grew up with in his hometown of Yokohama. 
 
"I needed a place where I could feel my home country and be able to talk with people in my native language," Okada said. "I have made some really good friends in that group and it helps me relieve stress."
 
In the classroom, Okada is majoring in sociology where he is able to use his love of reading and writing in his studies. He was named to honorable mention Pac-12 All-Academic during the most recent track season, and he is on track to graduate in spring 2019.
 
As his classroom results improved so did his running results. Okada became a fixture in the Bears' five scorers throughout the 2017 cross country season.
 
But as he was readying for track, he came down with mononucleosis. Okada missed all of the indoor track season as well as the first month of the outdoor season. By the time the Pac-12 meet rolled around in May, he hadn't posted a time that would qualify him for NCAA regionals. As a result, he was placed in the slow heat for the steeplechase.
 
The seed, though, seemed to provide motivation. Okada recorded a season-best time of 8:53.80, winning his heat by more than 17 seconds. "He looked like he was shot out of a cannon," Houlihan stated. That earned Okada a third-place finish and a berth at NCAA regionals.
 
"After that race, I was emotional," Okada said. "I gave 100 percent, that effort and the time that went into it.  When I saw Shayla's face, I got emotional. Shayla didn't give up on me."
 
Now, Okada is moving into more of a leadership role, though he will never be one of the team's vocal leaders.
 
"His role is to lead by example," Houlihan said. "After runs, he's doing his drills and his strides. All of the little things he does spot on. That is his role, to take some people under his wing and set an example for the younger guys."
 
His teammates listen. They understand what he has had to overcome to get to this point in his career.
 
"I know how it feels to be at the bottom of the team," Okada said. "If there's something I can do to help the freshmen that are struggling with running or school, I'm going to talk to them and try to help."
 
Okada truly feels comfortable in all aspects of his life at Cal, something no one would have expected four years ago.