Coach Yoshi Oyakawa was the swimming coach at Oak Hills High School from 1960 - 1985. Prior to coaching at Oak Hills, Oyakawa represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where he won the 1952 Olympic backstroke gold medal in 1:05.4, finally breaking Adolph Kiefer’s Olympic record of 1.05.9 set in 1936. He returned to Olympic competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where he was elected co-captain along with Ford Konno. He finished 8th in the 100-meter backstroke competition. He was awarded an athletic scholarship to attend the Ohio State University for swimming where he won 6 Big Ten and 7 NCAA titles.

Coach Oyakawa started at Oak Hills in the fall of 1960. During his coaching career he led the Highlanders to twenty-three team conference championships. He coached 6 state champions and two Olympians. He was named League Coach of Year twenty-three times, SW Ohio Swimming Coach of the Year twelve times, Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post Coach of the Year and in 1972 he was named The State of Ohio Division I Coach of the Year.