Last Saturday, LAFC and U.S. Men’s National Team Midfielder Kellyn Acosta served as the Honorary Grand Marshall of the Nisei Week Grand Parade in the Little Tokyo region of downtown Los Angeles.
This year’s Grand Parade was the highlight of the opening weekend of the yearly Nisei Week Festival which celebrates Japanese and Japanese American culture in the historic Little Tokyo community of Los Angeles.
Among the honorees joining Acosta in the 80th edition of the summer event hosted by the Nisei Week Foundation, were George K. Sugimoto - an Army veteran of World War II; and two-time Olympic medalists in Ice Dancing, Maia and Alex Shibutani, the dynamic duo known as the “Shib Sibs” are the first figure skaters of Asian decent to win Olympic medals in ice dance and first sibling ice dance team to win two Olympic medals.
Acosta’s Japanese ancestry comes from his father who was born and raised for the better part of his childhood in Okinawa, Japan. Kellyn, who is expected to be named to the U.S. Men’s National Team World Cup roster for the upcoming World Cup, has the opportunity to become the first player with Japanese heritage to represent the United States in the global tournament this fall.
