Nanae Owada never planned on playing Division I soccer when she came to America at the age of 18. She came to study. But when the opportunity to play soccer for the University of South Alabama presented itself, her plans changed.
Owada, a sophomore midfielder on the Jaguar soccer team, is more than 6,000 miles away from her native Koriyama (Core-e-YA-ma), Japan, where she lettered in soccer three years at Koriyama East High School.
From the time she began school, her father, Norio (Nor-E-o), and mother, Hiro (HE-row), both teachers, stressed the importance of education. Owada followed their guidance in the classroom, and outside of school, continued to play the game she fell in love with as a child.
She admittedly never followed soccer until she began to play it. She started playing against her older brother, Akito (uh-KEY-toe), while growing up, and eventually began playing club soccer.
"When I was 12 years old, I followed my brother to one of his practices," Owada said. "His coach asked me to play, so I started playing with them. It was a boys' school club team."
At age 13, Owada began playing with the Hanakatsumi Women's Futbol Club, while continuing to play with the boys' club team. "My brother is the reason I started playing soccer," she said. "His involvement in it is what got me interested. He influenced my career the most, because he always works so hard and never gives up."
After graduating high school in 2007, Owada decided to attend college in America. "I wanted to come to the U.S. and study International Studies," she said. "I went to the National College Network, and they helped me find South Alabama.
"They [NCN] encourage Japanese students to come study in America. I found USA on the institution's book, and chose it. I liked it, because it has many international students and offered the opportunity to meet students and people from different parts of the world."
In the summer of 2007, Owada arrived in Mobile to enroll at USA, where she took courses to learn English as a second language. During her first fall semester, she began playing intramural soccer at USA with a friend.
A year later, Owada was playing with the USA men's club soccer team. It was while playing with the men's club team that her opportunity to play soccer at South Alabama came about.
"The captain of our club team was close to coach [Mohammed] El-Zare, and he talked to him about me," Owada said. "Coach came to watch me play, and after that I decided I wanted to try out for the soccer team here. I knew they competed at a high level, and I didn't think I could get on the team. But I was happy when I did."
After walking on to the Jaguar soccer team, Owada phoned her parents to tell them of her news. Their reply, coming from educators, was nearly predictable. "They told me to not just play soccer, but study as well," she said. "They are teachers, so I guess I kind of expected that."
This season, Owada became the first Japanese letterwinner in USA soccer history. As historic as that may be, Owada admits it was something she never realized. "I really haven't thought about it," she said. "I just like playing with this team and communicating with them."
Although she has played soccer nearly her entire life, Owada now finds herself adjusting to a different style of soccer than what she grew up watching and playing.
"Japanese teams like to pass and move the ball around more," she said. "They are very patient and wait until there is a good opportunity to score."
It is her experience in playing with men's teams, in both the U.S. and Japan, that has prepared her for competition at South Alabama. "Physically, the men's game is different," she said. "Just the physical side of it is more intense. But I think I have benefited from that experience."
USA soccer head coach Mike Varga knows well the differences in the Japanese and American styles of soccer, which he recognizes as one of the adjustments Owada is making in her transistion to Division I soccer.
"The Japanese game is a little different than the college game in the U.S., so Nanae is still adapting to that," USA head coach Mike Varga said. "But technically, she's a very good player with a lot of potential to do well here. I think that once she starts to figure out the more subtle differences of the game between here and Japan, she will get even better."
One challenge Owada has faced since joining the USA soccer team has been communicating with her new teammates, although she has benefited greatly by interacting with the team and coaches at practice and games.
"I like communicating with my teammates," she said. "It's hard to communicate at times, but it's good for me and I think it improved my English and communication skills, especially during the games."
Another challenge Owada faced when coming to America was the difference in climate. In Koriyama, Owada lived near the Adatara Mountains, which are located just to the north of her hometown.
"I like the weather here," Owada said. "It's warm nearly all year. It is cold in Koriyama. It snows there from December through February, and there are no beaches near there. It's still warm there now, but it will start to turn cold soon."
Aside from adjusting to a new language and climate, Owada feels she has handled the transistion to a new country fairly well.
Her focus remains what it has always been - to get an education and play soccer.
"I want to play and win," Owada said. "I feel like I need to practice more and just do the best that I can. I want our team to play like we practice, so we can show during the games what we've worked on during training.
"When I'm playing, I want to try to give the team a chance to score. I just want to be a solid, well-rounded player."
Owada has appeared in eight games as a newcomer for the Jaguars this season, including four Sun Belt Conference contests.
Varga has been impressed with his sophomore midfielder both on and off the field this season. "She has soccer knowledge," he said. "I give her a lot of credit, because of the language barrier, for starters.
"She puts in a lot of time and effort into making sure she knows exactly what is asked of her. If she has a question, she asks. I think sometimes when there's not a language barrier, players are almost embarrassed to ask, thinking they should know. Nanae has been great to have around the team. She works hard every day."
Owada plans to return to Japan upon graduating from USA, with a career objective already in mind. "I am going to go back to Japan and find a job," she said. "I want to work with a non-profit organization like NPO or something like that. And I also may come back to USA and attend graduate school."
As far as her soccer career goes, Owada intends to continue playing once she returns home. "I want to keep playing soccer after I'm done at South Alabama," she said. "I will find a local club team when I go back home and play with them. It doesn't have to be a famous or high-level team. I just always want to practice and play with somebody; I love soccer."
More than anything else, Owada believes her experience at South Alabama will give her confidence in anything she strives to do.
"I know I will leave here a more confident person," she said. "I like to meet new people and get to know them, and soccer has provided me with a great opportunity to do that. And it has allowed me to share the game I love with people from all over."
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