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| The magnificent seven (2007 - 2008) |
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Perhaps I was ambitious when I described the team I inherited as a program; a handful of guys is more accurate. The previous season Johoku fielded a team of eighteen; out of the eighteen eleven had finished their eligibility leaving us with seven. In the 2007 - 2008 season we started out with seven players, grew to eleven and then fell back to the original seven.
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The show had to go on. Though only a volunteer I didn't dare miss a day of practice; the whole deal was a house of cards and it wasn't going to fall on my watch. Since we didn't have enough players to compete we focused on individual skill and technique. For this group, seven guys at practice was the new normal. The Johoku football experience had come to resemble that of martial arts dojo where player's learned to work for work's sake; I pushed them hard and with purpose. To their credit they bought in and broadened their concept of the football experience to include endless training; occasionally they lined up across from grown men. I'll never forget them.
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| .Myself and three of the original seven players a year earlier Hiroshima, Japan (2006) |
The "Eleven man" game...
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On this day we faced a team of twenty five with just ten of our own. The captain, (#55) was injured so we asked one of our local alumni to fill in as the eleventh man that day. Five of the six upperclassmen were forced to play out of position because the newer guys weren't physically or mentally up to the task. For the five new guys it would be their first and last game. I was all alone on the sideline. It hadn't dawned on me to suit-up myself.
.Johoku vs Sanda Shounkan - Hyogo (2007) Part - 1
.Johoku vs Sanda Shounkan - Hyogo (2007) Part - 2
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| .The players are filled with a sense of accomplishment after outplaying their own expectations. For the five beginners on the left this would be their first and last game. Hyogo, Japan (2007) . . |
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After outplaying their own expectations resulting in a 6 - 6 tie, the young guys are filled with a sense of accomplishment. Despite having been out manned, throughout the game Johoku pretty much dominated. The game ended with the Johoku offense fumbling a snap on the opponent's three yard line as time expired. And the moral of this story? ...Take your pick.
.A happy six hour bus ride home
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The gamble...
It was early 2008 and the spring match-up with Johoku’s lone rival Sotoku loomed. This is one of two bi-annual contests played between
the schools. As a result of the four beginners quitting Johoku's football team the prior December only the original seven players remained. Because all of the players were seniors the spring match-up with Sotoku
represented their last opportunity for competition.
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Historically there'd been little cooperation between the schools, despite their being the only two football programs within three hundred miles. The schools are about a mile apart as a bird flies. As a result of us forfeiting the prior contest with Sotoku in the second quarter due to injuries and a manpower shortage it was assumed that we’d just forfeit again. Not this time. I couldn’t just allow the only two teams in western Japan go without competition again. For months on end the players at both schools had toiled in the dirt in preparation for testing their mettle. I went out on a limb.
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Mindful that there could have been legitimate reasons for the lack of cooperation between the two schools I approached Sotoku myself. I had no idea who was in charge there and knew that things don’t always go down locally as they do in the West. Armed with survival Japanese and a desire to make myself understood, I initiated this contact unbeknownst to the Johoku school officials because I’d sensed reluctance on their part.
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I showed up at Sotoku's campus and quickly ran my Japanese ability to the limit. I met one of the Sotoku coaches and proposed to him we play the game with Johoku borrowing four players from a local college. Though using college football players might sound like an advantage the local college teams are often in the same undeveloped state as the high school teams.
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Throughout the meeting I remember sensing a kind of strange arrogance about the coach. He seemed unusually prideful, as if he had some kind of inferiority complex. I discovered later that he was the senior most active football coach at Sotoku and a local college. That would be my first encounter in Japan with a football coach that carried himself as if he were Emperor.
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Historically there'd been little cooperation between the schools, despite their being the only two football programs within three hundred miles. The schools are about a mile apart as a bird flies. As a result of us forfeiting the prior contest with Sotoku in the second quarter due to injuries and a manpower shortage it was assumed that we’d just forfeit again. Not this time. I couldn’t just allow the only two teams in western Japan go without competition again. For months on end the players at both schools had toiled in the dirt in preparation for testing their mettle. I went out on a limb.
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Mindful that there could have been legitimate reasons for the lack of cooperation between the two schools I approached Sotoku myself. I had no idea who was in charge there and knew that things don’t always go down locally as they do in the West. Armed with survival Japanese and a desire to make myself understood, I initiated this contact unbeknownst to the Johoku school officials because I’d sensed reluctance on their part.
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I showed up at Sotoku's campus and quickly ran my Japanese ability to the limit. I met one of the Sotoku coaches and proposed to him we play the game with Johoku borrowing four players from a local college. Though using college football players might sound like an advantage the local college teams are often in the same undeveloped state as the high school teams.
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Throughout the meeting I remember sensing a kind of strange arrogance about the coach. He seemed unusually prideful, as if he had some kind of inferiority complex. I discovered later that he was the senior most active football coach at Sotoku and a local college. That would be my first encounter in Japan with a football coach that carried himself as if he were Emperor.
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Napoleon and I eventually agreed to have our teams play one another in a game that would be meaningless in the record books with Sotoku, win or lose, advancing to the national high school football tournament. Surprisingly, the tone of the meeting wasn't cordial. Sotoku's coach had sarcastically proposed that I suit-up myself. Amused, I
declined the offer. Now that I'd experienced the situation up close and personal I began to understand the strange dynamic between the two schools.
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My attempt at appealing to a non-existent sense of good will was an eye opener. I was taken back at how the Sotoku coach was such an unlikable fellow; though we'd agreed to play the game it took me every ounce of my resolve to not toss him out the window of the second floor meeting room. I'd never experienced such unexpected rudeness from a grown man and I found it stunning that he was in charge. Perhaps he was the reason the two schools never agreed to do anything jointly. As a result I vowed never to take the local perspective for granted again.
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My attempt at appealing to a non-existent sense of good will was an eye opener. I was taken back at how the Sotoku coach was such an unlikable fellow; though we'd agreed to play the game it took me every ounce of my resolve to not toss him out the window of the second floor meeting room. I'd never experienced such unexpected rudeness from a grown man and I found it stunning that he was in charge. Perhaps he was the reason the two schools never agreed to do anything jointly. As a result I vowed never to take the local perspective for granted again.
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The day of the game the Johoku players were all grins because it would be just their fifth, and last, chance to line up against unfamiliar faces. The past year they’d faced two college teams, one alumni team and a high school.
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They performed admirably in the contest despite the circumstances; though out numbered three to one it didn't show in their performance. Throughout the game Sotoku platooned three different units against our team of thirteen. It was a battle but in the end Sotoku eked out a 7 – 0 victory on the scoreboard. The Johoku players and I left the stadium with our own interpretation of what went down.
The day of the game the Johoku players were all grins because it would be just their fifth, and last, chance to line up against unfamiliar faces. The past year they’d faced two college teams, one alumni team and a high school.
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They performed admirably in the contest despite the circumstances; though out numbered three to one it didn't show in their performance. Throughout the game Sotoku platooned three different units against our team of thirteen. It was a battle but in the end Sotoku eked out a 7 – 0 victory on the scoreboard. The Johoku players and I left the stadium with our own interpretation of what went down.
The original seven players after the last game
They'd endured having all of the new guys quit resulting in two forfeits.
Their last year they played a total of five games.
Koiki Koen - Hiroshima, Japan (2008)
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The last battle...
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| .The The young guys going out in a blaze of glory (2008) |
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| .The "last fumble" ceremony |
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