Memories of Japan, part 4b: A Day in the Life of a Hirado JET (Afternoon)
Jul 28 '09 (Updated Aug 04 '09)
The Bottom Line In this article, I focus on the time I spent after school with the Hirado men's basketball team.
In part 4a (http://www.epinions.com/content_5337424004), I wrote about the time before and up to the end of the actual school day at Hirado High School. This article focuses on my time with the Hirado men's basketball team and the daily practices after school.
3:00 pm
With great haste, I escape the Teachers' Room and run down the three flights of stairs. I quickly exit the school and run to the gymnasium, where I change into shorts, a T-shirt, and my basketball shoes, which are black Nike high-tops. In bunches, the basketball boys enter the gym and change into their training clothes in an adjacent equipment room. Then, I spy Tsugasaki-sensei as he enters the gym.
Tsugasaki-sensei is a new arrival at Hirado High School. He had just finished teacher training and this is his first year teaching as a mathematics teacher. Thankfully for me, though, he is also a bonafide basketball coach and player, having led his high school team to a quarter-final spot in the Nagasaki Prefectural basketball tournament and having played in college.
Flashback from 2009...
For several months, I stood in as the de facto basketball coach for Hirado High School's newly-formed men's basketball team. I remember my first month at Hirado, when Kurajiro and his friends mentioned that they had started a "basketball lover's club" (which is a bad translation of whatever the original Japanese phrase was). Kondo-sensei, who was a science teacher, had agreed to be the club's sponsor; the club sponsor is the teacher who is ultimately responsible for the students in the club, but more often than not the sponsor only seemed to serve as a kind of figurehead for the club. Most of the time, the sponsor knows very little about the club that he or she sponsors, but he or she is expected to sponsor some kind of club. So, in this way, the basketball lover's club and Kondo-sensei needed each other: the club needed a sponsor to become an official club, and Kondo-sensei needed the club to put something on his resume so that he did not look like he was dodging that part of the expectations placed on his position. In any case, because I liked playing basketball, I stepped in as the de facto coach, even though I had no game experience (except for pick-up games). However, I had a wealth of knowledge about basketball, being a big fan of basketball and of basketball video games.
Over those several months, with the help of my JET friend John, who was a basketball coach, I guided the basketball team through 3-on-2 drills, fast break drills, passing and dribbling drills, and zone-defense press drills. The boys were game and participated in the drills dutifully and, to their credit, with great enthusiasm. Initially, I thought it was my clout as a foreigner teaching a foreign game that earned their respect, but I came to find that they just liked playing basketball and were willing to do anything to not only incorporate basketball into their daily routine, but also to get better as players.
The Hirado men's basketball team had several decent players. Despite being a first-year student when the club started, Kurajiro Matsunaga was the accepted leader of the team, and probably the second-best skilled player overall. He stood at about 178 cm, had a good mid-range game, loved to rebound, and also played tight defense. Murata, Tazawa, and Hamada were in the club from the start, as was Hiromi Nishioka, who, like Murata, had a decent mid-range game but not much else. Among the core guys that were a part of the club were Hiroyuki Hirota, Kunio Suenaga, and Naoyuki Kitano: Hirota was around 165cm tall, but he hustled and was strong and fearless; Suenaga was pretty tall at 175 cm and had some quickness in the lane; Kitano was about 180 cm, but played like a guard with a great slashing game and surprising rebounding tenacity. Somewhere along the way, I had rubbed Kitano the wrong way; I believe it happened during one of John's mini-camps when Kitano and I disagreed on the usefulness of a low-post offense against a zone defense. After that disagreement, he dealt with me from a distance and seemed to have decided that he didn't like me much. This saddened me, but I resolved to give him space.
The club would come to grow in numbers. First, Naoki Ogawa, a third-year student, would join the team after he was given permission to do so following punishment for a school infraction (I believe he was caught smoking cigarettes) and poor grades. When he was allowed to join, he would become the team's point guard as he had great dribbling ability, he could pass and penetrate well, and he had a decent long-range shot. Then, when a new crop of first-year students joined the school, Yanagisawa and Yuki Hamada (not Soichiro) would compete as guards with a good shot and good dribbling ability, respectively.
I remember, upon Tsugasaki-sensei's arrival at Hirado, that a spot in a northern Nagasaki Prefecture tournament had been arranged. Initially, I had protested this, as I knew I was not a competent coach for game situations, and felt that the kids needed more time to play. However, I reluctantly guided the team into the tournament. Tsugasaki-sensei, having just arrived at Hirado, was unfamiliar with the boys, but thankfully decided to join us at the tournament. Sadly, my guys showed their nervousness and (with all fault conferred to me) inability to execute any kind of attack... and we lost 102-4! I don't often tell people about this result, but I must admit it here.
Shortly after the tournament debacle, I quickly and humbly deferred to Tsugasaki-sensei as head basketball coach and I assumed a role as a kind of assistant coach, though I don't remember Tsugasaki-sensei officially putting me in that role. To his credit, Tsugasaki-sensei was kind enough to let me fully participate in drills and even offer any advice I could on such things as boxing out offensive players, posting up, rebounding, and being a general nuisance on the court. Some of the students (the ones that really liked me, anyway) would joke that I could be the tall, hairy exchange student from America. A part of me wished that I were, but I knew deep down that my skill level was not quite there for official competition.
Tsugasaki-sensei ended up being a boon for these kids as they quickly adapted to his coaching style, which was all about running and quick decisions. "Semete ii, semete ii" ("It's okay to attack!") was what he often stated from the sidelines. As I approached the end of my time at Hirado, I noticed that the team began to play with a high pace and with good rhythm with crisp passing and quick shooting. Their defense also improved; with their energy, the team was amenable to a man-to-man defensive scheme. To this day, part of me likes to think that I had an influence in their development as basketball players, but I honestly believe I didn't. If anything, my biggest contribution was that I was present and enthusiastic when the team needed an adult to be when the club started.
3:15 pm, 1998
Tsugasaki-sensei immediately starts with warm-up drills, like leg lunges and end-to-end runs. The boys are in fine form, performing the drills with speed and energy. Tsugasaki-sensei then runs a passing drill, where four lines of players are positioned at the four points of an X. One player starts running; that player then receives a pass from the line to his right. The receiving player then passes to the line across from his original line. This progression goes in circles as players rapidly change lines and positions. This drill practice passing to cutting players and passing while cutting. The drill is aerobic and oddly fun.
3:25 pm
Next, Tsugasaki-sensei organizes the students in three lines along the baseline of one end of the court. Then, with one of the two wings starting with the ball, the three streak downcourt as if simulating a fast break. If the ball starts on the right, it is passed to the center player, to the left player, back to the center player, to the right player, and then to the center player yet again for the layup. The three players then swap positions and return downcourt. The three players participating in the drill had to perfectly pass and shoot during both trips down the floor, or else they would repeat the drill. Kurajiro, Mitsunori Tazawa, and I form a group of three, and we blow (thanks to me) two separate trips down the floor, which means we have to repeat the drill twice. By the end, we are winded, but we must get back in line to do the drill again.
3:35 pm
After that, Tsugasaki-sensei runs 3-on-2 drills with emphasis on defense. If the two defenders successfully stop the three attackers, then two of the attackers become defenders and the two defenders (and the remaining attacker) get a break.
3:50 pm
Eventually, Tsugasaki-sensei divides the team into two full-court scrimmages. Both he and I take part in the scrimmages. This is something I admire about Tsugasaki-sensei: unlike many coaches and sponsors I had witnessed, he participates and even plays better than most of the actual players.
5:00 pm
Official practice comes to an end. As some of the players dry mop the courts (which is a wonderful tradition student-athletes do after practice -- clean their own practice areas), others spend the remaining time shooting around and working on individual skills. Mitsunori, Naoki Ogawa, and I partake in an impromptu half-court and three-point shooting contest. Kurajiro laughs heartily and shouts something to us. Soichiro and Hideki are amused by the contest. Mitsunori does well from way downtown. I give up.
The basketball players slowly change back into their uniforms and either head for their bicycles or walk to the bus stop. I walk to my car.
Flashback from 2009...
By the time I finished at Hirado High School, the Hirado High School basketball team had competed in one practice tournament and one actual tournament. If I recall correctly, they won twice and lost twice at the practice tournament, and they won one and lost once at the actual tournament. So, unofficially, the Hirado High School men's basketball team was 3-4 (or three wins to four losses) by the time I left. The starting lineup was like this:
Center: #10, Naoyuki Kitano (2nd year, 180 cm)
Forward: #9, Kurajiro Matsunaga (2nd year, 178 cm)
Forward: #5, Soichiro Hamada (3rd year, 178 cm)
Shooting Guard: #12, Yuki Hamada (1st year, 170 cm)
Point Guard: #13, Naoki Ogawa (3rd year, 170 cm)
Sixth Man: #4, Mitsunori Tazawa (3rd year, 160 cm)
Seventh Man: #8, Hiroyuki Hirota (3rd year, 165 cm)
Tsugasaki-sensei did a wonderful job molding these kids into a cohesive unit. Though they didn't have any exceptionally tall players, they ran a lot and played at a very high pace in games. They proved to be pesky and tenacious, though bigger players tended to exploit them.
During my time on Hirado Island, my time with the basketball team, above anything else, was what gave me purpose and companionship. Every school day, the players were a constant to which I sometimes clung for sanity. Ironically, though, attending each basketball practice began to feel like an obligation and less like fun. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my time with those boys, I began to find that, with the arrival of Tsugasaki-sensei, my time was coming to an end. These guys needed to focus more on basketball and less on the dalliances of their foreigner "coach." Mind you, these aren't ramblings stemming from any kind of depression, but a realization that they didn't need me as a distraction. I was taking up practice time and space that all the players needed for themselves, and I realized they needed a Japanese coach with whom they could communicate completely.
It was my privilege to watch them grow as players and (I know this is a hackneyed expression) as people. I often wonder what happened to Kurajiro (the last thing I heard was that he became a firefighter), Mitsunori (he would eventually attend Nagasaki University), Naoki Ogawa (I would actually encounter a former female Hirado student in Fukuoka several years later who told me that she was dating Naoki), Soichiro, Hideki, and all the other players. I sometimes regret how my relationship with Naoyuki Kitano soured. I even wonder what happened to the two or three other kids whose names escape me to this day.
Before I left Hirado, several of the basketball guys came to my apartment to help me clean: if I recall correctly, Kurajiro, Naoki, Mitsunori, Hiromi Nishioka, Hideki, and Soichiro came to spend the day with me. I remember when Hiromi picked up a box of empty plastic bottles near my ground floor slider and a swarm of cockroaches scattered all around. I remember plugging in the Sega Mega Drive (which was Japan's version of the Sega Genesis) and playing NBA Live 95 with Kurajiro and Naoki. I remember buying bentos for all of them from the new vendor that had opened down the road. I remember how fun it was to clean my apartment and the joyous look on Kurajiro's face when I told him that he could have my Mega Drive and whatever Japanese-version games I had bought second-hand for it. He had to promise to let the other guys go to his house to play, though...
I miss those guys. I pray that I get to see them again, somehow...
To be continued...
In the next article, I will finish laying out a typical day as a Hirado JET.
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