Shohei Ohtani chose Hanamaki Higashi High School partly because of the presence of Yusei Kikuchi. When Ohtani was in his third year of junior high school, Hanamaki Higashi finished as runner-up in the Senbatsu tournament and reached the semifinals in the summer Koshien. Kikuchi, the team’s ace, was the driving force behind that success.

Seeing how baseball united the people of Iwate Prefecture through that run, Ohtani decided not to attend a powerhouse school outside the prefecture. Instead, he chose Hanamaki Higashi with a clear intention: to become national champions with players from Iwate.

When Kikuchi graduated and Ohtani entered the school with his extraordinary potential, head coach Hiroshi Sasaki felt both excitement and a strong sense of responsibility. He told Ohtani:

“If you only think about becoming like someone else, you’ll never surpass them. You have to aim to go beyond.”

This idea applies far beyond sports. In fields like entertainment or art, admiration can easily turn into imitation, producing nothing more than a “mini version” or “the next so-and-so.” Respect alone is not enough. Only by striving to surpass those you admire can you truly exceed them.

Ohtani admired and learned from many great players—Yu Darvish, Kazumi Saito, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui—but his mindset was different. He may have thought, “I want to be a player of that scale,” but he never thought, “I want to become that person.”
That distinction shaped the originality and magnitude of Shohei Ohtani as a player.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Bessatsu Kadokawa: Shohei Ohtani – Special Feature, p.180