'The Greatest Player Oath' Shines a Light on the Underdog Baseball Team's Koshien Drama [Lee Jong-seong's Sports Culture & Industry]

*This content was translated by AI.

'The culture of cheering for underdog teams is common at the Koshien baseball tournament. Fans and media consider the struggle of weaker teams more important than watching the activities of baseball powerhouses composed of top-tier high school athletes.

Of the 49th schools participating in the 108th Summer Koshien tournament that opened on the 5th, 40 are private schools. Generally, private schools provide ample support for their baseball teams. Moreover, most private schools can recruit outstanding players from other regions, giving them strong team strength. This is also why private schools dominate the Koshien tournament.

Public schools, on the other hand, cannot do so. School support is limited, and they mainly recruit promising local players. As a result, it has become very difficult for public schools to advance to the main tournament of the Koshien competition. Even in this year's tournament, only nine teams from public schools advanced to the main bracket.

The number of vocational high schools, including commercial high schools that once played an important role in Japanese high school baseball until the 1970s, has also decreased significantly. Only five vocational high schools made it to the main tournament this year. Fundamentally, this is a phenomenon stemming from the decrease in the number of vocational high schools in Japan.

However, among the private high schools that reached the Koshien main tournament, there are teams with weak strength. Nishi Do Kyo-ji-yeok (CEO) Hachioji Jissen High School, which advanced to the Koshien main tournament for the first time in history, is a prime example.

The Hachioji Jissen High School baseball team has no dedicated practice field and no special scholarship students. Of course, it is extremely rare for students from other regions to come to Hachioji Jissen for 'baseball studies.'

This team can only train for two hours on weekdays. They must share the playground with other students for their physical education classes. Even the playground used by the baseball team is so small that outfield defensive training cannot be conducted. Therefore, the baseball team has rented nearby Little League fields on weekends to practice.

The Hachioji Jissen High School baseball players are not special scholarship students in the true sense of the word. They are not students who receive tuition waivers or reductions as special scholarship recipients. They are simply student-athletes who were admitted to high school through the sports recommendation admission system after having their skills recognized during their middle school baseball activities.

Hachioji Jissen High School, with its poor infrastructure and no special scholarship system for tuition waivers or various cost reductions, finds it very difficult to recruit outstanding players from other regions.

Kawatomo Robert (40), the head coach of Hachioji Jissen High School's baseball team, lamented the difficulties in running the baseball team, stating, "It is a very difficult environment to admit good players. There is no dormitory, so we must recruit players only from nearby areas." Of the 20th players from Hachioji Jissen who participated in this tournament, 19 live very close to the school's location.

In the first round of the Koshien tournament on the 9th, Hachioji Jissen High School lost a close match that went into extra innings until the 10th inning against Naruto Shisho High School from Tokushima Prefecture with a score of 1-2.

However, the Hachioji Jissen High School coach said, "The baseball team has written new history." Although they lost in the first round of the main tournament, the fact that Hachioji Jissen won six games in the Western Tokyo regional preliminaries and advanced to the main bracket itself carries great significance.

Interest from Japanese baseball fans in Hachioji Jissen High School had been high even before the tournament. The 22 million yen (approximately 197 million won) raised through a crowdfunding campaign organized by the school to secure group cheering funds can be understood in this context.

It is evaluated that Yazawa Ryoma's (3rd year) opening ceremony oath at the Koshien tournament also had a positive effect on Hachioji Jissen High School's successful crowdfunding.

In his oath, he said, "Every time we move forward toward tomorrow, nature gives us great trials many times. But opening a new path with our teammates is a great driving force to overcome this." He drew attention by mentioning the Kumamoto earthquake disaster that occurred on July 28 and the efforts of citizens trying to recover from it. At the end of his oath, he said, "Even though we lost the game, let us convey hope to those around us through facial expressions that hold back tears."

In fact, although Hachioji Jissen High School players lost on the 9th, instead of wiping away tears, they encouraged each other. Also, Japanese media outlets highly evaluated the struggle of Hachioji Jissen High School, which succeeded in scoring at the Koshien main tournament despite difficult circumstances.

Japanese netizens also applauded the efforts of Captain Yazawa, who stayed up all night to revise his speech and practiced it 200 times for the mere two minutes and 40 seconds of the opening ceremony oath reading. This is why Koshien, which values the social and educational value of high school baseball beyond the win or loss of a game, is enviable.

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*This content was translated by AI.