From Underdog to MVP: Maika Miura’s Inspirational Basketball Journey

Special feature: The four years we ran through.2024

Hiromi Shimizu

2024/03/08

(Last update: 2024/03/08)

• #Run through 4 years.2024

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Miura of Hakuoh University who won MVP in intercollegiate competition (all photos taken by Shota Inoue)

At the women’s 75th All-Japan University Basketball Championship (Intercollegiate), which ended in December 2023, Maika Miura (4th year, Seika Women’s) of Hakuoh University won the MVP award. The starting point is “I want to play basketball in a faraway place where no one knows.” She looks back on how she grew from a disadvantaged background to become a player who can demonstrate her true worth in international competitions.

[Special feature]The 4 years we ran through.2024

A basketball family whose father is a “running center”

Intercollege closing ceremony. The MVP was announced at the end of the individual awards while the excitement of the finals, which pitted Hakuoh University and Tokyo University of Health and Human Services, was still in the air at the venue, Yoyogi Second Gymnasium. “The MVP is…” After a moment, the name of Hakuoh University’s ace, Miura, was announced, and the first thing that erupted was a roar of cheers from his teammates.

“As expected!” “Leo (Miura’s coat name) is the only one out there, right?”

I heard whispers like that. The coat name comes from the image of a leopard running gracefully across the prairie. He was a perfect fit for Miura, running all over the court and sinking six three-point shots in the semifinal match against Takushoku University, becoming the driving force behind Miura’s second championship in seven years.

His weapons include overwhelming running ability and scoring ability.

Miura’s father and mother are both instructors. His younger sister is a first-year student at Nippon Sport Science University, and his younger brother is a first-year student at Sendai University Meisei High School, so he comes from a basketball family.

In particular, his father, Yuji Miura, was a famous athlete who went from Noshiro Technical High School (currently Noshiro Technology) to Nippon Sport Science University and NKK. He is said to be the model for the monument “Statue of Glory” in the schoolyard of Noshiro Science and Technology and for Masashi Kawata, the older brother of the Kawada brothers who appears in the manga Slam Dunk. He was selected to the top five in the Winter Cup three times and became known as a running center. Maika, the eldest daughter, has inherited this DNA, but her basketball life has not always been smooth sailing.

I went to Seika Joshi because I could learn from the basics.

Born in Tomiya City, Miyagi Prefecture, Miura started playing basketball in the first grade of elementary school. He saw a flyer being handed out at school, and he attended a practice, which inspired him. However, due to insufficient numbers, he was only able to participate in his first tournament when he was in the 6th grade of elementary school. He gathered helpers and finished 3rd in the prefecture. His situation remained the same at Tomiya Junior High School, where he was allowed to participate in the boys’ basketball team’s practices and gain experience with the club team. When she was in the second year of junior high school, a women’s basketball team was formed, but she was not able to participate in an official game until six months later. Just like when she was in elementary school, she participated in her first official match in her final year and came third in the prefecture.

“Maybe Maika should leave Miyagi.” A friend of Miura’s father, who knew him from his unlucky elementary and middle school days, called out to Miura. By chance, Hakuoh University coach Tomonobu Sato was coming to Miyagi, and he gave me a chance to talk with him.

Director Sato looks back on the first time he met Miura.

“I didn’t have any club activities in junior high school, and only played on the club team.I was told, “You’re a talented kid, so please take a look at me” and that’s when I saw Maika, a second-year junior high school student, play for the first time.Career I thought it would be nice to have a place where I could build up my skills and learn the basics, and Fukuoka’s Seika Joshi immediately came to mind.I contacted coach Haruji Ogami, and he shared a room with Miura’s father at the Nippon Sport Science University training camp. He said, “I know him very well.” That’s a quick story. When I started club activities in my third year, I think I would have scored 40 or 50 points in a game.”

Due to a lack of players, I was unable to participate in official matches during my elementary and junior high school days.

“There’s a high school called Seika Joshi in Fukuoka that teaches you from the basics,” he recommended to Miura. When Miura watched practice during the summer of her third year of middle school, she ran, was energetic, and got the impression that the team was bright. She had already made up her mind to leave Miyagi.

“I just wanted to go somewhere far away. I didn’t have any club activities in junior high school, so I wasn’t selected as a senbatsu player. I was disappointed. There are strong high schools in Miyagi, but people don’t know about me. People who went to a strong middle school I thought that would be the priority.If that’s the case, I want to do my best in a place where no one knows about me,” Miura said, looking back on his feelings at the time.

From Miyagi to Fukuoka. For the sake of basketball, I didn’t mind living far from his home. He wasn’t homesick either.

The existence of Saki Hayashi was the deciding factor for me to enter Hakuoh University.

We are covering Miura, who stood out as a first-year student at Seika Girls’ High School, along with Suzuno Higuchi, her teammate and captain at Hakuoh University. Not only did they have a sincere attitude towards basketball, but most of all, the sparkle in their eyes was outstanding.

Higuchi (center) has been my teammate since the Seika Girls’ days.

“At Seika, I learned a lot from the basics. The most important thing was courtesy and humanity. Action and attitude toward goals. I’m still using that to this day. I’m really grateful.”

His best results at national tournaments were top 8 in both the Inter-High and Winter Cups in his second and third years. He then moved on to Hakuoh University, which is led by coach Sato. He didn’t know that they would be teammates again because they and Higuchi were on different high school courses. In addition to Coach Sato’s personality, the deciding factor in deciding to enter the university was also the presence of his senior colleague, Saki Hayashi (currently at Fujitsu). She was a member of the intercollegiate team when they won their first championship, and she currently serves as the captain of the Japanese national team. Her performance as a three-point shooter at the Tokyo Olympics is still fresh in her memory.

“I respect Kiki-san (Hayashi). I want to become a player like Hayashi-san, so I decided to pursue my career at Hakuoh University.”

An amazing 145 times in 20m shuttle run

During her time with Seika Girls, she was selected as a member of the U16 Japan national team. Her potential blossomed as she experienced international matches such as the U16 Asian Championship and the U17 World Cup. The trigger for this was her physical fitness test during her U15 national team training camp. She completed an amazing 145 20m shuttle runs. By the way, she scored 125 times for boys and 88 times for girls, which is her highest score of 10 points. Once she reached 145 reps, she stopped because there was no point in continuing.

Her father, Yuji, said, “All she had was running ability and guts.When she was in first year of junior high school, she ran 1,500 meters in 4 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a Miyagi prefecture record.My younger sister, Mizuki, is very similar to me in terms of rebounding and playing style. However, Maika may have inherited her running ability.” After he became a high school student, he started saying, “I want to become an Olympian,” and Yuji encouraged him, saying, “I don’t know if I can become one, but it’s good to set goals and work hard. Do your best!”

The running ability inherited from his father, Yuji, was fully demonstrated in every match.

Utilizing his outstanding running ability, he defeated Finland in the semifinals at last year’s FISU World University Games and won the silver medal. Mikiko Hagiwara, who served as her head coach for her under-age team, was surprised and said, “She is a rare type of Japanese person who can play an active role in international matches rather than domestically.” Miura himself said, “In international matches, the opponent’s physique, physicality, and physical ability are very high, so it feels completely different from when you play in Japan.However, the strength and speed of the defense, the quickness of transitions, etc. are common. “So it’s a lot of fun to play,” he says of the enjoyment of international matches.

Last chance to win the national title for the first time

During my four years at university, Tokyo University of Health and Welfare was always in front of me. Especially after he became a fourth-year student, Hakuoh University won both the spring tournament and the fall league match, but Miura thought, “There’s no point in winning the last intercollegiate match,” and the team won 79-69. They defeated Tokyo Medical and Health University.

“I had been losing in intercollegiate matches for three years, so I felt like I was going to win for sure at the end.I practiced extremely hard, and I went in with the mindset that this year would be the best, so I’m glad that it paid off. We won the tournament and the league, and people might have thought that we would win the intercollegiate team as well, but we kept losing in the intercollegiate league, so I felt like we were going to take on the challenge.” He cited “the emotional aspect and the team’s sense of unity” as the reason for the victory.

I grabbed the victory with a strong feeling that “this year is it!”

“In order to win against Tokyo Medical Care, we must continue to lead. That’s why the start was so important,” Miura said. When he couldn’t score, he worked hard on defense and focused on rebounding. It wasn’t until his fourth year that he realized that he was an ace, and Coach Sato told him, “Don’t look for a pass, go for it yourself. Rather than controlling the game, take the plunge and do what you want.” It continued.

“I’m in the same position as Hayashi (Maho, 4th year, Gifu girls), who I matched up with. I was thinking, ‘I can’t lose.’ I was determined to score, but I wouldn’t let my opponent do it. I was protected like a face guard. At that time, I still went out on my own, but I realized that I should have taken advantage of it and made the best use of the people around me.”

In his final year, he worked on independent practice even more than before. He was early in the morning and sometimes sleepy, but his year-long training paid off in the end. Since my diet includes vegetables and protein, I have more opportunities to cook hot pot in the summer.

“I didn’t have the image of winning in an intercollegiate tournament, but this was my first national championship in my life.I had been losing all the time, so when I finally stood on the court in my fourth year, I realized that this kind of fun could be. ” he says with a smile.

We did everything we could to win the national championship.

On the day of the final, my father wore a jacket inspired by Hakuoh University’s team color, blue, and watched the game from the cheering seats with my mother and younger sister. We witnessed the national championship. “The only time I was really excited was when my name was called for intercollegiate MVP.It didn’t mean that I was the MVP, but that I had worked hard and worked hard for four years.”

Although he achieved his long-awaited intercollegiate championship, Miura had a calm expression in the interview immediately afterward. Maybe it was because they were scheduled to play against ENEOS of the W League in the Empress’s Cup three days later. In the Empress’s Cup, the team did not take a step back until the fourth quarter, and although they lost 74-84, they showed studentlike efforts.

W League debut as an early entry player

The end of the year was even more hectic. He became a member of the Toyota Motor Antelopes as an early entry player. He moved from Tochigi to Aichi and joined Toyota’s practice. He made his W-League debut in a match on January 3 of the new year.

He didn’t have time to settle down and made his W-League debut early.

Finally, we asked him why he decided to work with Toyota and what his future goals are.

“I chose Toyota because I thought it would be a great environment to play basketball, with a bright and fun team that plays basketball and chases loose balls desperately, and a team that I would want to root for.My goals. My goal is still to become an Olympian.The challenges to that end are overwhelming defense, the ability to grab rebounds without using height as an excuse, high-probability shots, communication skills, and situational judgment.” It’s back.

At the beginning of his basketball career, he spent many anxious days, but there is no longer any anxiety in his eyes. I also had the good fortune of being blessed with good connections at key points and overcoming difficulties. She practiced basic skills over the course of four years at university and learned how to make herself shine. Even after her graduation, she continues to pursue her own dreams.

2024-03-08 16:23:22
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