When Honoka Yabuuchi was 12 years old, she moved to Sedona with her family from Japan. A few years later, Yabuuchi joined the Sedona Swordfish Swim Club. Now, as a recent high school graduate of Sedona Red Rock High School, it’s clear that she made an impression on the club.

Early this month, the Swordfish awarded Yabuuchi their annual $500 scholarship. Dan Morse, who coached Yabuuchi on both the Swordfish as well as the Scorpions high school team, said that Yabuuchi’s overall dedication to both her own swimming as well as her team made her an especially worthy recipient.

“Honoka was captain of the Red Rock High School team,” Morse said. “We named her captain because of her work ethic and leadership — she looks out for everyone. Everything we gave her the scholarship for was why she was captain. She’s just a really good kid.”

Yabuuchi’s times in the pool dropped dramatically since joining the Swordfish as a freshman.

Four years ago, Yabuuchi swam the 100 freestyle in 2:03. As a senior, that time was nearly a full minute lower at 1:08. In the 500 freestyle, Yabuuchi more than cut her time in half, going from more than 14 minutes as a freshman to 6:47 as a senior.

“I like to think that I pushed myself every day and I’m happy that the coach respected my hard work,” Yabuuchi said. “It was a very fun experience and I did grow as a swimmer and a person. I had so many experiences. I had to push myself to become a better swimmer.

“I competed with so many fast swimmers and tried my hardest to catch up to those swimmers,” Yabuuchi added. “I just started four years ago and those swimmers have more experience and they’re super fast. It was a struggle but very fun to keep pushing myself.”

Yabuuchi said that she was happy to receive the scholarship not only for herself, but to provide some relief to her parents, as she has two younger siblings that she wants to see go to college, as well.

“I feel very relieved,” she said. “I have two younger siblings and I really wanted to help my parents financially, because it’s going to cost more money for my siblings.”

Next up for Yabuuchi is Grand Canyon University, where she’ll study art and hopes to eventually become an artist. Anyone who saw the SRRHS team swim during the fall season in 2019 would have seen Yabuuchi’s artwork, as she designed the logos for the team suits.

Morse noted that while plenty of swimmers would have been deserving recipients of the scholarship, Yabuuchi was the perfect example of what he wants his swimmers to be.

“Everyone was really deserving,” Morse said. “Honoka is a really dedicated
swimmer. She’s been on the team for a while and exemplifies everything we look for in swimmers. She’s really dedicated, cares for her fellow swimmers and displays everything we want out of our team.”