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Keiko — Battle-Tested Mind of Icarus

Keiko Takuda.

By Ethen Lieser

Icarus was warned plenty of times. And when he didn’t obey orders, he fell from the sky. Keiko Tokuda was warned plenty of times. And when the Stanford senior didn’t obey orders, she won championships. Now, who possesses true mythological powers? One doesn’t have to look much further than Palo Alto.

Four years ago, Tokuda, then a fragile high school senior at Clifton High School in New Jersey, took the news like a hand on a burning stove.

“You can’t play tennis anymore,” the doctor said to Tokuda.

It was like a tsunami drowning her dreams. She had always wanted to play tennis in college and hopefully professionally, but with this news, it seemed like it was all but over. Countless hours of practice, sweat and tournament competition since age four swirled down the drain.

“It affected me mentally because I was told I couldn’t play tennis anymore,” Tokuda said. “And I wanted to play professionally very badly at the time.”

The diagnosis: Crohn’s disease, a serious inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that can cause cramps, abdominal pains and fevers.

“I couldn’t eat a lot and there was serious cramping,” Tokuda said. “It usually flares up in two days and then goes away in a week.”

But the disease wasn’t so kind this time. It almost wiped out her entire high school senior season. And it is something she will probably have to deal with throughout her life — it is incurable, though there is medication that can suppress the symptoms.

Then came the decision. Should she risk aggravating the disease by continuing to play tennis? Tokuda, like any passion-ridden teenager, felt that what she could gain outweighed the consequences. She audaciously took Icarus’ route and never looked back. “I knew I had to play,” Tokuda said.

And play she did. Besides, she always knew she had something on the line. Something big. It was the possibility of a clean sweep. Tokuda, ranked No. 1 in the Eastern Region in 1996 in both the 16-and-under and 18-and-under groups, had captured the New Jersey state tennis title three times. This was a chance for No. 4.

“There was a lot of pride on the line because I won it three years in a row,” Tokuda said.

But was Tokuda ready? She was definitely not in top condition. She had to sit out the first two months of the tennis season because of the unrelenting claw-hold of the disease. And how fine-tuned could her game be? She’d only been playing for one month. “No matter what would happen, I just decided to go for it,” Tokuda said.

When the time came for the championship match, a weary Tokuda managed to put mind over matter. She slapped around her opponent like a cat would an injured mouse. And No. 4 was hers. But more importantly, the doctor’s words became a distant memory. She had new hope for the future.

“It just gave me hope that if I worked hard enough, I can get through this,” Tokuda said.

Stanford, meanwhile, had been recruiting Tokuda for a few years. But would the nation’s top tennis program want an athlete afflicted with this disease? For Stanford head tennis coach Lele Forood, the decision was a no-brainer.

“You could tell that she was a fierce competitor,” Forood said. “And we knew she didn’t play consistently [due to her illness] in her last year but we knew she would be a very good gamble with a scholarship because of what she had shown in the past.

“She’s got tremendous versatility in her game. And one of the beauties of coaching Keiko is that, depending on the matchup she has with a particular player, she can play a lot of different styles. She hits very well off the ground and there are a lot of players she can just basically out-hit. But if she’s playing a bigger and stronger player, she can really mix it up well. She can roll the ball up well or she can attack and come to the net to surprise.”

Needless to say, Stanford is reaping the rewards. During Tokuda’s first three seasons in the program, the Cardinals have racked up two NCAA national championships, the program’s 10th and 11th, including a perfect 30-0 this season and one runner-up finish two years ago. “Even though I’ve won it twice now, it’s still an amazing feeling,” the two-time team captain said. And in the process, Tokuda has been steadily improving her already devastating game. From her No. 73 ITA ranking at the beginning of her freshman year, she has been as high as No. 21 this season, which can be credited to her tenacious work ethic.

“Her personality and work ethic are kind of at opposites,” Forood said. “When she’s on the court, she concentrates very well and is focused. Her personality is that she is very outgoing, friendly and loves to talk. She’s in charge of things like remembering birthdays on the team. It is very much a contrast to her intensity when she’s on the court. Without question, her personality is very important to our team structure.”

Undoubtedly, that is her game plan — full-throttle intensity. And like a blessing from the heavens, it is this intensity and love for tennis that has counteracted the crippling potential of the disease.

“I think to just play tennis, it prevents the disease from flaring so often,” said Tokuda, who contemplates attending graduate school to study psychology and education after she graduates next year. “I haven’t had a flare up in over a year and a half.”

The future? One can only bet it will be a success in whatever field Tokuda chooses. “I think [playing professionally] is something I’m interested in because I’ve been playing for so long,” she said. “But obviously, I have to graduate first and I’m focused on that.” Besides, she still possesses something that has been scrounged and beaten by a terrible disease — heart.

Now, only if Icharus had been as fortunate.

Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.