Wednesday, July 06, 2005
中体連tournament
This past weekend was the annual "chutairen" sports tournament. Students from all over participate in tournaments for their respective sports; the reason that this is the big one is that the grade 9 students will retire from bukatsu. The idea is that they'll now turn their attention to studies so that they can get into good high schools.
Last year was my first chutairen. Although all my school's teams lost on the first day, my heart was nearly broken as the kids lined up, tears streaming down their faces, and thanked us for supporting them. I have great pride for my school anyway, but you sure realise it when you see that.
This year, although confidence in my school's teams wasn't terribly high (my principal didn't even schedule any spectating for day 2, the Sunday), my kids gave it all and competed with their hearts on their sleeves.
I started off watching the soccer team, who ended up getting pasted 7-0. Hmmm, not much to say about that except 'where was the defense'?
My first love is baseball and the baseball team, and I got to watch them play next. When we got there, we were leading 3-0. Keisuke belted a mammoth homerun. Shinji was on the mound, and things were looking good. Then the skies opened up...
There was a rain delay for about an hour as we all took cover. We really wanted to get the game in, since we hadn't played 5 innings yet, if the game were to have been cancelled, the score would have reverted to 0-0. Not that we couldn't have taken Matsubase anyway, but hey. The weather cleared, the field was drained (I helped with that; nothing like a little work in the mud for the benefit of the boys), and we continued. We went on to win the game 4-1 and advance to the semi-finals on Sunday.
Although I wasn't gonna receive a time-in-lieu day off from my school, I wouldn't miss the baseball game on Sunday for the World. Toyono pride runs in my veins after all. Shinji was on the mound again, and despite a first inning homerun, he settled down and started to mow down the opposing batters. Still, down 1-0 we needed to get the bats going. It's weird, back home when I was playing baseball, you'd pitch for maybe 3 innings at the most, then a new pitcher would come in. And you didn't often throw back-to-back games, not to mention that bench players would get to see some action. Well in Japan, there's no thought of potentially burning a kid's arm, thus Shiji could get back-to-back starts. And just like the pros, when you get a start as a Junior High School pitcher, you are expected to go as deep into the game as possible. And bench players have about just a chance of seeing game action as Steven Seagal has of seeing an Oscar in his awards case.
Anyway, Shinji settled into a groove, and we ended up scraping 1 run around the 6th inning. After 7 innings, or a regulation game, the score was tied 1-1. Shinji had now thrown 14 innings in less than 24 hours (the rubber-armed wonder, or a future Tommy John surgery candidate?). After 8 innings, still 1-1. In the 9th, Shiji beaned the leadoff batter, then got an out before being pulled in favour of a fresh Yohei. Outstanding work, 8 1/3 innings, 1 run given up. That's crazy. Yohei ended up escaping the inning without further damage. In the 10th inning, each time was given an opportunity with bases loaded and no outs. No worries. We surrendered 3 runs, making the score 4-1. It was our turn. But we could only muster 2 runs before our luck ran out, final score Tomiai 4, Toyono 3.
Outstanding work guys. You are my heroes. You make me proud to be your teacher...Great game, and what a great bunch of guys.
Last year was my first chutairen. Although all my school's teams lost on the first day, my heart was nearly broken as the kids lined up, tears streaming down their faces, and thanked us for supporting them. I have great pride for my school anyway, but you sure realise it when you see that.
This year, although confidence in my school's teams wasn't terribly high (my principal didn't even schedule any spectating for day 2, the Sunday), my kids gave it all and competed with their hearts on their sleeves.
I started off watching the soccer team, who ended up getting pasted 7-0. Hmmm, not much to say about that except 'where was the defense'?
My first love is baseball and the baseball team, and I got to watch them play next. When we got there, we were leading 3-0. Keisuke belted a mammoth homerun. Shinji was on the mound, and things were looking good. Then the skies opened up...
There was a rain delay for about an hour as we all took cover. We really wanted to get the game in, since we hadn't played 5 innings yet, if the game were to have been cancelled, the score would have reverted to 0-0. Not that we couldn't have taken Matsubase anyway, but hey. The weather cleared, the field was drained (I helped with that; nothing like a little work in the mud for the benefit of the boys), and we continued. We went on to win the game 4-1 and advance to the semi-finals on Sunday.
Although I wasn't gonna receive a time-in-lieu day off from my school, I wouldn't miss the baseball game on Sunday for the World. Toyono pride runs in my veins after all. Shinji was on the mound again, and despite a first inning homerun, he settled down and started to mow down the opposing batters. Still, down 1-0 we needed to get the bats going. It's weird, back home when I was playing baseball, you'd pitch for maybe 3 innings at the most, then a new pitcher would come in. And you didn't often throw back-to-back games, not to mention that bench players would get to see some action. Well in Japan, there's no thought of potentially burning a kid's arm, thus Shiji could get back-to-back starts. And just like the pros, when you get a start as a Junior High School pitcher, you are expected to go as deep into the game as possible. And bench players have about just a chance of seeing game action as Steven Seagal has of seeing an Oscar in his awards case.
Anyway, Shinji settled into a groove, and we ended up scraping 1 run around the 6th inning. After 7 innings, or a regulation game, the score was tied 1-1. Shinji had now thrown 14 innings in less than 24 hours (the rubber-armed wonder, or a future Tommy John surgery candidate?). After 8 innings, still 1-1. In the 9th, Shiji beaned the leadoff batter, then got an out before being pulled in favour of a fresh Yohei. Outstanding work, 8 1/3 innings, 1 run given up. That's crazy. Yohei ended up escaping the inning without further damage. In the 10th inning, each time was given an opportunity with bases loaded and no outs. No worries. We surrendered 3 runs, making the score 4-1. It was our turn. But we could only muster 2 runs before our luck ran out, final score Tomiai 4, Toyono 3.
Outstanding work guys. You are my heroes. You make me proud to be your teacher...Great game, and what a great bunch of guys.
