Sakura ground. It is a facility of Koriyama High School, and the name is appropriate for the site of Koriyama Castle, which is famous as one of Japan’s top 100 cherry blossom viewing spots.
This is the practice base for the Koriyama Baseball Club.
On weekdays, it can be used until 8:30 pm in addition to general practice from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, and is now equipped with LED lights. On holidays during the season, the track and field club uses the facility until around 10 o’clock, but if they complete preparations such as warming up and knocking seats during that time, they can smoothly transition to practice matches.
A good practice environment in a public school
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In recent years, it has not been unusual for the club to have fewer than 10 students per grade, but manager Yuki Okano explains the current situation by saying, “I think there are many students who choose Koriyama High School because of the environment.”
“Some of the preparatory schools in Nara Prefecture share the field with other clubs, so we rarely go outside for practice games, and the school is relatively lenient with our practice times.I think it’s a good environment for playing baseball.”
Okano describes the team as a “steadfast type” of hard work. This is the origin of Koriyama, nurtured by this environment.
Koriyama has valued the basics ever since the days when Tatsuyuki Morimoto was the manager, and he took the team that had only appeared in Koshien once before the war in 1933, to the top four in the nation in the summer of 1971, and to the top eight in the spring of 1998.Tatsuyuki Morimoto grew into a powerhouse with 12 wins in 12 appearances.
Even before my student Okano’s high school years, from 2006 to 2008, there were many dishes that focused on the lower body. He built the foundation of his body through circuit training, such as lunging 75 meters while carrying a barbell and pushing tires.
For Okano, who went on to Nara Kyoiku University to become a teacher and then a coach because he wanted to be involved in high school baseball in some way, his high school days remained a memorable experience for him.
