© Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
Rin Sakamoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He grew up as a wrestling star in his native country, qualifying for its under-20 national team and representing Japan at the world championships. But Sakamoto has since taken an uncommon path, moving to the United States and attending Oklahoma State University, where he’ll have to learn an entirely new style of wrestling and an entirely new language and culture.
On Sunday, the true freshman made his debut for the Cowboys in their biggest dual of the season against the rival Iowa Hawkeyes. Ultimately, he fell to second-ranked Drake Ayala via major decision, 11-1. But Sakamoto acquitted himself well, especially when you consider that Oklahoma State coaches could not verbally communicate with him during the match.
Our coaches held up signs written in Japanese for Rin Sakamoto’s debut match last night. Very cool to see, and hoping to see more of Sakamoto next season!
📸 Mark Lundy (@LutteLens) pic.twitter.com/agr9DcbhMA
— emily ! (@EmilyGarrett01) February 24, 2025
Sakamoto, who has lived in the United States for less than a year, is still gaining a grasp of the English language. Knowing this could present a problem during matches, Oklahoma State’s coaching staff came up with a remarkably clever way to address this issue. They created several signs with simple terms written in Japan so that they could show them to Sakamoto during the match.
One sign, which was photographed above, said simply “calm down.”
Sure, Sakamoto did not win. In fact, he didn’t come all that close to winning. But given the situation and how new he is to this style of wrestling, he proved that he’s no slouch. As Sakamoto gets a better grasp on the style, and the language, he could well become a force to be reckoned with for the Cowboys.
Until that point, however, we may continue to get more hilarious images of Oklahoma State’s coaching staff finding creative ways to help out their athlete.