At the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, the Japan Women’s Basketball National Team achieved the first feat in history by defeating superior teams one after another and winning a silver medal. She supported the team as an assistant coach, and Toru Onzuka (43) took over the position of commander from Tom Hovasse (current head coach of the men’s team) in September of the same year. He has no remarkable achievements as a player, and was originally a health and physical education teacher at a junior high and high school. From there, he raised an unnamed university team into a strong team that won the Incare 5th straight victory, and finally led the Japanese national team. Looking back on her unique career, we can see the trajectory of meeting people at milestones as a seed for her own growth.
A logical and hot coach I met at university
Toru Onzuka, who grew up in Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, encountered basketball when he was in junior high school. The junior high school basketball club he attended was a weak team that ranked 3rd out of 4 teams in the city, but the exhilaration when deciding to shoot and the endless choices in the process leading up to the shoot. I was grabbed by the dynamism of being there.
He is also enthusiastic about basketball at Nakatsu Minami High School in Oita Prefecture. “Until I was in my third year of high school, I didn’t know where Tsukuba University was or what level it was,” said one of the seniors who was from the neighboring town and was active at Ohori High School attached to Fukuoka University. I learned that I was going to Tsukuba University and studied hard. He overturned the E-judgment of the mock exam and passed the PE school.
From that time on, I had a desire to become a coach, but it was the encounter with Tetsuro Hidaka, who came to the men’s basketball club at the university as an outside coach, to solidify his determination. Mr. Hidaka, an alumnus of the club who is familiar with American-style coaching and tactical theory, was known as an outstanding leader.
“At junior high and high school, I wanted the coach to teach me a little more, whether it was practice or tactics. Professor Hidaka gave me the logical explanation I was looking for. He taught me with a very passionate feeling, including the part of the mind that I can grow if I play. The guidance that combines both logic and passion was really moving, and I longed to be such a coach. “
I returned to my hometown of Oita and took a teacher employment exam to become a leader like Mr. Hidaka. However, he received a notice of failure. When I was in trouble, the director of the university’s basketball department introduced me to the president of Shibuya Education Academy, Tetsuo Tamura, and I was hired as a health and physical education teacher at Shibuya Education Academy Makuhari Middle and High School. Was done.
