“SoftBank Winter Cup 2025 2025 78th National High School Basketball Championship Tournament” begins today. In the men’s first round at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Kaishi Kokusai (Niigata ①) played against Takayama Nishi (Gifu). Both schools were unable to participate in this summer’s Inter-High School Tournament, so this was a must-win match as the first and last national tournament of the year.
Before the match, coach Hideki Togashi said with a wry smile, “It was the same in the summer, but we’ve had a lot of bad luck this year.Maybe we should go to exorcism.”Kaishi Kokusai entered this tournament with a lineup that could not be called fully equipped, as they were missing their three main players, Zen Hawkins, #5 Ryoto Nakatsuka, and #9 Keiji Kitamoto due to injury or poor health.
As a result, the first match was a battle of ups and downs from the beginning, which he said was filled with anxiety. As Coach Togashi reflected, “We couldn’t make a good run, and we had some of the stiffness of the first game,” and it was a close game that didn’t allow us to pull away as we had hoped until the beginning of the second quarter. However, from the midfield, they made a break through their fierce defense and succeeded in extending their lead.
After that, they actively used their bench members and dominated the game. With 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Kitamoto, who was injured just before the start of the game, was substituted on the court. He waited in the corner and took a number of shots while standing on one leg, but unfortunately they were not converted, but he excited his teammates and time was up. Coach Togashi was relieved and said, “We did a great job,” as the team made it through the first round with a score of 88-52.
When asked why the team maintains a good atmosphere even in difficult situations without key players, Coach Togashi emphasized the contributions of the senior students, saying, “It’s the third-year students after all.They’re the unsung heroes, and they do things that don’t show up in numbers, such as enlivening the atmosphere of the team.”
#13 Yoji Takahashi, a second year player, is encouraged by the third year students and is expected to play an active role as the ace. Takahashi himself expressed his gratitude, saying, “He’s a very dependable third-year student, both in practice and in his personal life.He lets me play basketball regardless of grade, and we have a relationship where I can talk to him about anything, so he’s been a huge help.”
In this game, Takahashi played 27 minutes and scored 18 points, the most on the team. However, there were turnovers and shooting errors, so it wasn’t exactly at its best. “Today, the game ended without me fully grasping the unique atmosphere and tension of the Winter Cup.I feel like I wasn’t able to play the way I wanted,” he said frankly.
Now that there are many absentees on the team, Takahashi’s role has increased. “My role of helping the team win hasn’t changed, but the number of players who can score points and get rebounds has decreased…That may certainly be a negative thing for the team, but I’m conscious that I want to make up for that negative amount,” says the ace, who seems to be becoming more aware of this.
Since this summer, Kaishi Kokusai has added the phrase “Awareness and Responsibility” to its team slogan, which is also written on T-shirts. “I feel like I have the most responsibility to be aware of being an ace and to help the team win. Togashi-sensei calls me a “3rd year student,” but I feel like that’s a word that really fits my current situation,” Takahashi said.
Having missed the Inter-High qualifying round due to injury in the summer, he says, “I can understand a little bit how people who can’t participate feel.” As an ace, I am determined to pour out not only my own frustrations but also the feelings of my friends who cannot participate in this tournament.
“I have one day off tomorrow, and the second round is the day after tomorrow.I want to mentally prepare myself from scratch and be able to lead the team even more in the next game,” he said of his motivation for the next match.
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