Columbus North senior Kanon Matsuno was faced with a tough decision a few years ago — either stay in Japan or move to the United States with her father.
Matsuno made the choice to come to America.
In March of 2017, after her father Matt accepted a job at Toyota, Matsuno moved from Nagoya, Japan, to Columbus. After finishing her eighth-grade year at Northside Middle School, she enrolled at North.
One big reason Matsuno decided to make the move? Basketball.
On top of adjusting to a new culture, which included making new friends, Matsuno didn’t know any English.
However, Matsuno wasn’t overly concerned with it and was up for the challenge.
“I knew that basketball was a huge sport here in America, so I wanted to play here,” Matsuno explained. “It was hard at first because I didn’t speak any English, and I didn’t understand anything, but my teammates helped me out a lot.”
Nagoya is located in the central part of Japan on the island of Honshu, and it’s the fourth most-populous city in the country behind Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
Shortly after Matsuno arrived from Japan, she started going to open gyms and summer camps.
She said that was were she developed a lot of bonds and relationships with many of her teammates. Two of those teammates Matsuno grew close to were Madison White and Alexa McKinley.
At first, the language barrier was the most difficult part to overcome, but the team had creative ways to communicate.
“It was hard at first. I remember over the summer we would use Google translate a lot to just communicate with her,” White said. “It was kind of hard, but Google translate definitely helped a lot, but then as she got better at English, it was easier for us to communicate.”
“We had to teach her a lot of English, but she’s gotten better,” McKinley added. “I remember when we had to use Google translate to try and explain the plays and stuff. It was really hard just seeing her have to learn it that way, but she can speak English now pretty well, so I’m happy for her in that way.”
When it came to practicing and the coaches teaching her plays, Matsuno said it was still difficult, but she at least got a better understanding.
“I knew that I would not understand well. They would draw it on the board and stuff so I could understand what was going on,” Matsuno said. “I couldn’t really speak, but at least I could listen. My listening wasn’t bad at first, so I could listen and do what they say, basically.”
Matsuno now is fluent in English and has established a role in the Bull Dogs’ lineup.
After spending time after practice honing in on her skills, Matsuno was poised for a big year her senior season. However, she ended up rolling her ankle at the end of the North’s preseason scrimmage.
Following their Dec. 5 game with Terre Haute South, the Bull Dogs were in quarantine due to COVID-19 on two separate occasions and missed more than a month of the season. When they returned to action Jan. 12, Matsuno was one of the biggest bright spots that week.
One person who wasn’t surprised to see Matsuno have that type of performance was her head coach, Pat McKee.
“We knew it in the preseason, but from November to Dec. 5, we weren’t seeing the girl that we saw in the preseason because she had rolled her ankle,” McKee said. “She missed some time, and even when she came back, she didn’t quite have that confidence to really explode.
“Now, she’s playing at a really nice level,” he added. “She’s playing now like she was playing in preseason. Playing with confidence, looking to score, looking to push off and explode by people, which are all things she can do.”
Off the court, Matsuno has grown close with her senior teammates. Last fall, she and White made the trips to Bloomington and Seymour to watch McKinley’s postseason run with the girls soccer team during the Class 3A state tournament.
One of biggest things Matsuno will miss once she returns to Japan after graduating in the spring will be all the friendships and the time she has spent with her senior teammates on and off the court.
“They’ve always been there for me always, like literally, always. They’re best friends for me,” Matsuno said. “They always try to include me in everything, and they always invite me for everything, so we hang out a lot, and we got to know each other and we’re really close now.”
Matsuno said she will stay in touch with teammates once she goes back to Japan for college, and she also hasn’t ruled out a future visit to see her teammates down the road.
“I hope that they come to visit Japan, and hopefully, I can visit here again after I go back,” Matsuno said.
