Sun Feb 12 2012
By Colin McEwen
Record-Courier staff writer
Although he did not bring home the gold, Tadaaki Hatta is pleased with a silver medal.
The Ravenna High School art teacher is a coach with the USA Wrestling national women's team that recently finished second in the World Cup Championships in China.
The team lost to the home-team China, by one point in the last match, which Hatta said was down to the wire.
"I'm still satisfied with the silver medal, because of the way the girls wrestled," he said. "They wrestled with pride. Even though we lost, we showed we could compete with anybody."
In the first round, the U.S. team beat Ukraine, and then defeated Hatta's home country of Japan -- a country where his father revolutionized the sport nearly 80 years ago.
"They didn't like it," Hatta said. "I didn't mind competing against them, because I know what they're doing. They wrestle like I used to, so they can't hide."
Although Hatta was born in Beijing 65 years ago, nothing seemed familiar to him. His family moved to Japan when he was 3 years old.
He won the Japanese national championship in high school and received a scholarship to compete in the U.S. at Oklahoma State University, where he won the NCAA championship in 1965.
Hatta said Japan "was the team to beat" at the World Cup, so he feels confident about the team's chances at the Olympics in Beijing this summer.
"They showed the world what they can do," he said. "The U.S. team is capable of beating anybody."
Hatta's wrestling résumé is stocked with credentials that include being a member of the coaching staff with the U.S. women's team in Athens in 2004; U.S. Olympic men's freestyle wrestling team in 1988, 1992 and 1996; the Japanese Olympic team in 1968 and 1984; and the 1972 Mexican Olympic team.
He said his coaching specialty is scouting the other teams' methods and finding ways to counter them. He also has coached with many northeast Ohio high schools, including Ravenna.
Superintendent Tim Calfee said he is proud of Hatta and the team.
"It's a wonderful accomplishment," he said. "With such a great finish, we're all looking forward to a gold medal in Beijing in 2008."
Hatta said trials begin in April, and when training begins again in June, he will join the team once the school year is finished. Then, in August, he and the team will head to Beijing to compete for the gold.
"At the Olympics, anything can happen," Hatta said. "We just have to refine what we're doing. The goal is to get a few gold medals."
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