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.The Sotoku Fighting Ducks
Hiroshima, Japan - January (2011)
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2010 - After five years of toiling in the dirt with the Johoku Longhorns I took my services across town to the rival Sotoku Fighting Ducks. Sotoku's campus was actually five minutes closer to my home than Johoku was so I figured that was a small gain for me. Over the past few years I'd learned some things unique to the local coaching environment so my expectations were tempered; mostly I was focused on my next opportunity to teach through football. I'd go on to discover things that went well beyond cultural variances in how a game is played; some of the observations were positive, some not so much. Regarding my notes on all things football related, I can only be frank.
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Before beginning I'll give you some background. There are only two high school football programs in the westernmost part of Honshu Japan (Hiroshima Prefecture), Johoku and Sotoku. As a result of my previous experience at Johoku I'd devoted my life to working with students on the gridiron. Having sacrificed much to put myself into the position to potentially affect young lives I take coaching seriously; not the winning is everything kind of "seriously" but the more useful "prepare oneself to the utmost on and off the field" version.
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When I finished my tenure at Johoku there was only one place
left to go, across town to Sotoku; I knew it would be different, I just didn't know how
different. When I arrived at Sotoku in mid-2010 I'd been
coaching in Hiroshima since 2005; to do so I'd passed on precious job opportunities while pledging my allegiance solely to the young players.
The fee for my services was always respect and an improvement of some sort in
the young student's development; though not expressed in writing my terms were non-negotiable. By the time I'd finished at Johoku my options were to walk away from the game entirely or enter the rabbit hole; I chose the latter. As a result, I bore witness to many interesting and amusing situations often wishing I could make a movie; I settled on writing about it instead.
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.Prior to my arrival at Sotoku there'd been some shuffling in their coaching regime; apparently the guy running the program had left. It turns out he was the same fellow I'd met with a couple of years earlier to arrange for my Johoku team to scrimmage Sotoku. It's alleged he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar at a college where he'd also been running the football program. I didn't press for details; all I was told was he vanished. Upon learning the situation I had a flashback to an episode long ago in Virginia when the owner of a football team I played on had also disappeared with the "treasure". Who knew it was possible to coach two teams at the same time? Turns out it wasn't; but that's another story.
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| Sotoku players working hard . .
My role at Sotoku was somewhat different than it had been across town
at Johoku. Since it's establishment in 1951 the Sotoku football team has been
continually coached and run by alumni. This is known locally as the "OB" system. OB is an acronym for "old boy". Johoku's
football team had also been run with the OB system until I took over as a
traditional coach in 2007. When I left Johoku in 2010 the team reverted back to
the old OB system.
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A typical Sotoku roster is made up of anywhere from twenty-five to
thirty-five players evenly balanced from grades ten through twelve. Sotoku and their rival
Johoku are the only two high schools with football teams in the western part of the main island of Honshu. The teams play each other twice a year with the winner advancing to the
first round of the bi-annual Japanese national high school football tournament. At Sotoku players and coaches alike take great pride in
carrying on the old ways. Following orders and maintaining the status quo are
the rule with this outfit. The team's manner of doing things could be
considered a throwback even for tradition loving Japan. The one and only
directive of this team is not to lose to Johoku.
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. . speak loud, carry a big stick... . . Sotoku's football boss has a thing for baseball bats; which should give you a hint into his style of management. Whenever he's around it's a dictatorship, pure and simple. Interestingly, this dictator has no talent whatsoever with regard to coaching or management. His skill lies in the manner in which he administers Machiavellian ruthlessness to maintain control of the Sotoku football team; his techniques would've put Joseph Stalin to shame. He's either exalted or despised by those familiar with him. . By nature, football teams don't function well as democracies. I'd be the first to admit the importance of having a strong, decisive leader with a vision; however, with this outfit none of those traits were present. What I witnessed was what often happens when hierarchies go unchecked; a classic case of institutional oversight missing in action. No discipline, no accountability, just do whatever suits you; which is the very reason I got into coaching in the first place. But I digress. Having witnessed and experienced many things in sports everything about Sotoku's football operation screamed stay away; however, I sensed a rare opportunity to witness something not commonly seen in this day and age. .
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At the center of the mysterious web that is Sotoku's coaching staff is the "Shogun", a rotund fellow who reigns through force of character. A former linebacker, he's a living, breathing caricature of old school Japan where one man openly berates another. Both coaches and players alike cringe in his presence as they're typically younger and slighter. A modern day schoolyard bully, the Shogun is probably the last of his kind and is the lone loud mouth on the staff.
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Sotoku alumni coaches (2012)
Sake and beer is on the menu. I'm third from the right.
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In Japan issues of rank are paramount so everyone knows the pecking order within a given group; age is typically the defining
characteristic. When I first joined the coaching staff I fully understood
this; although the situation was somewhat murky. I'd assumed the eldest coach would be the godfather; it turned out it wasn't that
simple. The eldest coach had been the captain of the 1970 Sotoku team. Since it was apparent he
was the oldest I assumed the buck stopped with him; however, in matters
of control whenever the Shogun was around he'd behave as if he were God incarnate and
the older fellow would just seem to fade away. Early on the "who's in charge?"
situation would be an ongoing source of confusion. In an odd twist, at the time of the photo above I was forty-eight making me second oldest among the coaches but I didn't count.
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I'd often witness the young OB coaches getting
harangued by the Shogun. They'd just stand there and take it; not out of respect but of
fear. The tirades seemed to be a mix of local sempi-kohi (older over the
younger) culture and bullying. This kind of thing is common and somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in Japan. The Shogun was bigger, older, louder, and socially obtuse.
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The Shogun was notorious for profanity laced outbursts;
no matter where or who was within earshot he just let fly. His
targets were usually the young or slight of build; although, he never singled
me out me directly. Student athletes, referees, and support staff were the
usual victims. On the rare occasion he "felt his oats" in my presence
he was sure to be surrounded by a group; one on one he was quiet as
a mouse. Since I'm a stickler over issues of
respect bullying is a non-issue for me. The leader's boorish behavior was reliably predictable; those in his
orbit had their own ways of coping. It was like taking a bitter pill; just
swallow and get it over with. The Shogun often surrounds himself with kids and
old men so there's no fear of repercussions. As the polar opposite of the others I knew
that there'd come a time I'd have to collar him but to remain in the circle I'd
have to suppress my instincts.
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Though out sized characters are fairly common in sports I'd
never seen anything like a game day on a Sotoku sideline, home games in particular. Since usually
only the player's families are present at home games attendance is sparse; the overall atmosphere in the home stadium is similar to that of a golf tournament.
The dynamic between the action on the field and the spectators is different
in Hiroshima; American football isn't popular in Japan but the folks in the stadium scream whenever someone on the field runs.
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The main attraction at a home game is the cantankerous boss; steadily bellowing obscenities while
unwittingly revealing his innermost thoughts and strategies to all present. He's all over the place; ordering his players to lie down on the field to feign injuries at the top of his lungs because he's burned through all of his time outs. Everyone in attendance can hear this. It's like witnessing a foul mouthed, cantankerous, old baseball
manager complaining about each and every pitch to the umpire for nine innings.
None on the Sotoku sideline dares utter a word. The player's mothers find
the tirades amusing and gather at the base of the stands behind Sotoku's bench
so they can catch every little thing.
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Game day in Hiroshima
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Coaching in an environment where the
culture often ran contrary to my own was interesting. Though I understood what
the objective was I'd found the local approach
somewhat mechanical and overly simplistic. It was as if they'd
deconstructed certain aspects of the game and turned it into an assembly line. Trivial things were often emphasized at the expense of game day variables and I often heard the word "abunai" (dangerous) used whenever things started to get physical. Over time it became clear to me the team had been operating
in that manner for many years. I could sense from how the older OB coaches stood off silently in the distance that these rituals were ancient traditions.
. Interestingly the Sotoku elders seemed to have held a belief that "game day" was a destination that necessitated the curtailing of everything rigorous leading up to it; weight training and tackling were forbidden from weeks before kick-off. All of this in preparation for facing a larger, more physical opponent that typically out manned Sotoku by the ratio of two to one.
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I recall a summer practice when the receivers took off their
helmets in the middle of pass catching drills. When I urged them to put their
helmets back on they complained telling me they were hot and that their helmets were
heavy. As always, I'd been doing the drill with them in full gear as we were
preparing for a midday game (June) the following week. I told the guys it was
hot all over Japan and that the heat and equipment were part of the
preparation. Out of the blue the oldest OB coach stepped forward said it
was OK for them to remove their helmets because it was hot. Naturally, days later in Kobe, in the sweltering midday heat on the Astroturf, the Kansai team took Sotoku apart; a couple of our receivers were out of the game before halftime because of the heat. They played both ways but that's the whole point, we weren't prepared.
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practice, practice, practice, practice...
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The Sotoku team doesn't compete very often so it has lots of idle time on its hands. Hiroshima is probably the only place in the world that has high school football teams that train and practice year round but rarely compete. I'd heard the expression "off season" training used among some coaches; you can't have an "off season" if you don't have a season. The high cost of travel between Hiroshima and the relatively football rich Kansai area play a big part in this local mentality; other than rival Johoku the closest team is a five hour bus ride to the east in Hyogo Prefecture. There is one American school close by (M.C. Perry) from the Armed Services League that's been willing to play Sotoku but coordinating with them regularly has been a challenge.
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In a traditional football environment with ten or more games scheduled throughout a season the situation is dynamic; the weekly preparation, the injuries, the travel, and the all-important
meshing of a team are all part of routine management. Battling through a season
against stiff competition raises the level of everything. For both Hiroshima teams
the situation is different; since there are only two teams and no league, officially, they can only count on playing twice a year. The winner of each of those contests is rewarded with a humiliating loss to a Kansai team. Consequently, both Hiroshima team's elders concede that Kansai teams are just superior.
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The goal for most high school teams in Japan is to reach the
bi-annual national high school tournaments held in the spring and the fall. Lack of confidence not withstanding, the Hiroshima teams have somewhat of a disadvantage. From the Kansai
area eastward American football is relatively popular and there
are roughly one hundred and twenty high schools spread among different regions of Japan that play the sport. While
the numerous teams clustered in the heavily populated areas gain valuable game experience battling for tournament access Hiroshima teams sit idle.
. Chartering a bus to Kansai for a scrimmage is an expensive luxury for both Hiroshima teams. Unlike in the States, in Japan there are no leagues for high school sports; aside from tournaments, schools typically compete among other local schools. Competitions among schools in a particular area are typically held under gentleman's agreements. At both Johoku and Sotoku extracurricular travel expenses come directly from the player's parents. While it's nice to be able to take a six hour bus ride to the Kansai area (average charter fee $1,500 USD) more could be done to take advantage of what's available locally. Johoku and Sotoku are less than two miles apart and beyond the bi-annual battle for tournament access the teams do nothing jointly.
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Less than two miles separate Johoku and Sotoku
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A Sunday practice (2012)
When the players are plentiful more alumni show up on Sundays.
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Another Sunday (2016)
There are five old guys or alumni coaches helping out on this day,
three of whom (#40, #1, and myself in red shoes) are in equipment.
One of the main sources of the football team's many issues was its heavy reliance on a practice menu. Its use had been established and enforced by the
Shogun as a means to control the football team while not being present. Though
the concept may sound straightforward, it's just not possible to replace a
qualified, living, breathing coach with a white board.
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A typical practice menu
The menu consisted of stunningly over simplistic
drills which the players were forced to follow without deviation; though bored with it
they were too terrified to skip it for fear of the Shogun. They'd obediently follow the
menu for months until about a week or so before a competition when the Shogun
would mysteriously reappear to unveil a new offense. Though at times difficult, the menu was pretty much useless.
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. . . to lift weights, or maybe not... Despite rarely competing injuries were an ongoing problem for the football team. Though the majority of the player's injuries occurred while practicing sometimes the players would hurt themselves in odd ways; things like pulling a back muscle from sneezing or riding a bicycle into a telephone pole on the way to school. Though the injuries were real, I advised them to modify their tales into something more heroic. . Somehow none of the team's elders correlated the absence of regular weight training with the team's chronic injury situation. When I proposed the team lift weights more regularly I was rebuffed. Apparently the eldest coach had eighteenth century beliefs about physiology explaining how my body was somehow different than theirs; it was the classic the chicken or the egg scenario. The team's overall approach to injuries always seemed to be reactionary having to do with rehabilitation or going to the hospital. The concept of building flexibility and strength as a preventative measure wasn't present. There was a weird Pilate's menu they dabbled in; although, one can't bring down a fullback with Pilates. . .
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Kansai...
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.Expo Field - Osaka
One of two sites where the national tournament games are held in Kansai
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Game days for players and coaches alike were always something looked forward to; for the players it was a long awaited reprieve from months of toiling away on a dirt field. The bi-annual match up with Johoku is always played in Hiroshima; historically the cross-town rivalry is the only contest either team actually has a chance to win. If either squad is lucky enough to squeak by the other they're rewarded with a trip to Kansai.
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Kansai is a long way from Hiroshima literally and figuratively. During the long bus ride eastward the players take in the sights along the highways of Western Japan including the assorted rest areas and the rolling landscape. The sightseeing culminates in the pre-game meal at a rest stop just outside Kobe. The mood shifts as the charter bus pulls into the parking area of the football stadium; confidence is not present. Though not articulated, it seems a Hiroshima team's goal has already been achieved.
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Hiroshima teams don't travel well in general; probably because they don't do it often. The tepid manner in which a Hiroshima squad wanders into a Kansai area stadium and bumbles through pregame is a harbinger; although, the assorted coaches clad in their matching polo shirts seem oblivious. After warming up the quarterbacks and receivers I find a suitable spot somewhere on the sideline where I'll capture assorted player's on camera. It's a precious thing that game day photo, the players will treasure them long after I'm gone. I promise them I'll capture the good, the bad, and the embarrassing. They laugh because they know I'm serious; then they relax.
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Oji Stadium - Kobe
The second of two sites where national tournament games are held in Kansai
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Me warming up the quarterbacks
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a tangled web... .. ..
After a few of years of working with the football team I
began to sense rumblings behind the scenes. Apparently there'd been a long
running struggle for control among the elder alumni; I was vaguely aware but over time it became obvious. I was unconcerned because it seemed petty and unrelated to football. Because of my remedial Japanese I was often the last
to learn things; all I had to go on was my Western instincts in a foreign environment. Though none of the oft absent coaches were compensated to my knowledge mysterious manipulations and positioning had manifested. It was just a small town high school football team with only
twenty or so players yet there were rival factions of old men peeking around
corners and rumblings of schisms and coup d'etats. All the scheming and
plotting could have only meant one thing; one man's volunteerism was another's
livelihood. ..You can't make this stuff up.
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Despite the mysterious subplot I managed to find a
tolerable equilibrium to operate within. Because of my remedial Japanese I'm sure
there was a lot more going on than I was aware of. Camaraderie among coaches, though
at times good, was somewhat complicated. Because of the pitiful situation I was forced to settle for helping the young players cope with the circumstances; anything else achieved was a bonus. Though to some extent my
goals were realized it just wasn't the kind of atmosphere I anticipated. The Sotoku football team has been in continual operation with the alumni coaching
system since 1951. I imagine some of those teams endured some interesting
coaching regimes.
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Sotoku vs M.C. Perry H.S. (2015)
M.C.A.S. Iwakuni
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The coin toss Sotoku versus M.C. Perry (2015)
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M.C. Perry coaches, myself, Sotoku staff, and players
at the food court M.C.A.S Iwakuni
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Headed to M.C.A.S. Iwakuni for a scrimmage with M.C. Perry (2015)
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A Saturday morning (2015)
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Sotoku tradition...
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| .The Sotoku Fighting Ducks - Hiroshima, Japan Sotoku first fielded a football team in 1951. No face masks in that era. I believe they played touch back then. |
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| .(#11) is the senior most OB coach at Sotoku OB or "old boy" is another way of saying alumni. |
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| .Quarterback / safety (#7) (# 11) in the above photo. |
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| . The Sotoku Fighting Ducks (Circa 1984) Running back # 33 (front) and linebacker #65 (standing) are current coaches at Sotoku. Sotoku field - Hiroshima, Japan |
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| .Johoku field - Hiroshima, Japan (1983) |
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| .Sotoku's team membership was at it's peak in the "bubble" years. The "bubble" refers to the 80's decade when Japan's economy was at it's world beating peak. |
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Kicking pants in Western Japan
Hiroshima (2011)
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.With the Monsters
Iwakuni, Japan (2012)
Life with Ducks...
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Myself & Sotoku OB coaches (2010)
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| ."Sempi" teaches "kohi" or, the older teaches the younger |
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| .Catching wet balls in freezing weather |
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| .Folks around here are confused about where I came from or why I'm this way. For me, chasing kids around a football field beats fighting over a parking spot in downtown Atlanta. Hiroshima, Japan (2011)  Hiroshima, Japan (2012) . |
.No comment
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..Everybody dons a helmet at Sotoku
even the coaches
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.Road trip
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..Game day
I'm in the background.
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The seniors
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| .Sotoku football alumni Hiroshima, Japan (2012) |
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| Summer (2015) |
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| Sotoku versus M.C. Perry - M.C.A.S. Iwakuni (2017) This is the last group I coached at Sotoku |
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The annual alumni game...
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| .The high school guys square-off against alumni in the annual OB game Hiroshima, Japan (2011) |
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| .In the dirt... again |
.The alumni team trying to intimidate the high school guys
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| .The coin toss |
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| .A bit of wagering going on among alumni |
.Alumni players making up offensive plays prior to the game
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| .Every year alumni return from colleges and X-League teams to pound on the high school kids. Many of alumni are active college players from the Kansai (Osaka) and Kanto (Tokyo) areas. |
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.The Sotoku and Hosei University football alumni gang,
three are active OB coaches at Sotoku.
Alumni give high schoolers tips...
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| .A brief ceremony for the seniors |
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| .Sotoku alumni & myself In the green are Sotoku alumni players from Tokyo's Senshu University, with the orange helmets Hosei University, and in the blue helmets Osaka Gakuin University. Hiroshima, Japan (2011) |
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| .Students head to the clubhouse ↓ Link ↓ Photo link 写真のリンク |
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