You probably know who I’m talking about. You see her standing on the sidelines supporting our student-athletes at most school sporting events. Athletic Director (AD) Joanna Fukuma is a beloved member of the staff and community, supporting all athletes and bringing people together. 

Fukuma’s love for sports started at a young age. “I had a father that loved sports, took me to everything: Super Sonics and then when the Sounders came to the King Dome…having a father that loved sports got me into anything and everything,” she said. 

Her father along with other influential PE teachers filled her childhood with sports and from a young age she started playing any sport you could think of. From tennis to basketball to softball, Fukuma was a three sport athlete in high school. “Slowly basketball evolved into being my favorite sport and then I was recruited to Seattle Pacific so that paid for my education and was very fortunate there,” she said.

Following her playing career, Fukuma didn’t jump straight into an AD position, she actually wanted to coach, specifically collegiate basketball. “I always wanted to be a collegiate basketball coach and so coming out of college I did camps, I coached boys and girls club. I did all that stuff and I knew that I wanted to coach the sport that I loved,” she said. Her first coaching job was an internship while she was still in college. Then a position opened up as a graduate assistant at the University of Washington. “[The coach] was going to take me. And then this girl from France, her Visa would have expired so she would have had to go back to France, and she (the coach) decided to take her on as the graduate assistant,” she said. 

After this hardship, Fukuma continued to pursue coaching at the high school level. She started out in Tacoma at Stadium High School as a PE teacher and a c-team girls basketball coach. “Once I started coaching high school I never looked back,” she said. Although Fukuma has had a very successful career in her various coaching and AD positions, she still has not let her goal of coaching college basketball go. “After retirement,” she said, “if I ever wanted to have no regrets and coach at the collegiate level I’d apply to be an assistant coach somewhere or go to a community college and start there cause I don’t have a lot of recruiting experience. I feel like I know what good basketball looks like and when you do the AD job you know what good coaching should look like.”

Fukuma started her AD career during the 2003-2004 school year at Franklin High School in Seattle. By becoming an AD she was hoping to help coaches develop athletes. “I told myself work with coaches to help develop athletes to become better,” she said. After the nine year stint, Fukuma spent six years in Vegas. Originally, she was just coaching again for fun but she ended up being the AD for four of those years. Following her time in Vegas she took the AD position at Shorewood where she has been for five years.

At Shorewood, Fukuma does many things behind the scenes. She clears athlete registrations, grades, and attendance. She oversees events on campus while getting workers and also coordinates with administration to supervise. She also tries to get the student-athletes as much recognition as possible. But her favorite part of her job is watching her athletes succeed. “The best part of the job is just watching,” she said, “seeing students play, seeing students get better, seeing us be competitive, seeing us be nice…I love sports, so watching you all is like bonus and then just being connected to students.”

However, as many know high school athletics can be a tough environment for both students and parents. The balance between keeping families happy while bringing success to the programs has been a challenge for Fukuma. “Although I love to see everyone play, my goal is to see students go to the next level, like anything to get their school paid for, community college, JUCO, all the way to Division 1,” she said. This mentality is difficult for many parents to understand because the reality is that not every kid is going to play but the ultimate goal is to develop players. This challenge also carries on to coaches. “The other challenge is making sure the coaches are the right fit for my philosophy of being competitive and still being nice people,” she said.

This drive for success in Shorewood sports was not there when Fukuma initially took the AD job. “When I first came here there were no expectations, no one told me how good teams were or weren’t and they weren’t looking for someone to make everyone win,” she said. “They were looking for someone to involve as many people as possible. Then we slowly got into it’s okay to see us win and so that’s kind of been the direction.” Fukuma hopes the major success in the fall will continue on into the other seasons.

For her long term goals, Fukuma hopes to one day finish top 10 in the WIAA Scholastic Cup which balances athletic and classroom performance as well as sportsmanship. She also plans on bringing back student athlete committees, which she has held in the past, in order to hear face-to-face from the students. She wants to continue to grow the programs here to see even more success while keeping the sporting community tight. Fukuma said: “From every bottom freshman who is just starting c-team volleyball to elite Division 1 players, I want to make sure I treat everyone the same.”