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CHAMPAIGN — My grasp of Japanese is limited to a couple phrases: “Let’s go” and “my knee hurts.”
Illinois football coach Bret Bielema knows some others: Ichiban, sake and Sapporo.
“Back in my younger years, we’d go out for some sake and went to a sushi joint and had Sapporo beer,” Bielema said after Monday night’s spring practice at the Smith Center.
Bielema welcomed longtime friend Atsushi Saijo to the Illinois football facility this week. Saijo brought members of his team from Osaka Sangyo University with him.
Bielema and Saijo first met in 1994, when Bielema was a graduate assistant at Iowa and Saijo was a visiting player/coach.
“Seventy players came over and we coached them,” Bielema said. “I was around them an entire week. I distinctly remember the first time I taught him a slap uppercut to a counter swim, to see a light bulb go on in his head through an interpreter is really something else.”
This time, Bielema showed the visiting team a photo of him with Saijo from back in the day.
The Japanese players and coaches watched the practice and took a group photo with the Illinois team.
Through the subsequent years, Saijo has spent time with Bielema’s programs at Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas and now Illinois.
“I feel lucky to continue to have a relationship to him,” Saijo said through an interpreter. “Originally, he taught me a lot of fundamental defensive football.”
Photos have been taken each time the two coaches connect and Bielema has copies.
Not that Bielema’s young daughters were sure he was in the pictures.
“My youngest saw a picture of me in 1996. I’ve got a Hawkeye sweatshirt on and khakis and a pair of Aviator shades,” Bielema said. “My…
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Publish date : 2025-04-10 17:47:00
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