Until the female mané who didn't know how to grip the bat knocked in Koshien March 3 at 15:19

Koshien is a special place for high school baseball players.

This spring, for the first time in Senbatsu High School baseball, a female manager will knock before a game.

"Can you join the baseball club?" is the story of a club

activity started by a childhood friend, who volunteered to grab a bat and become a knocker at Koshien.

The only "13th" member is...

Joto High School in Tokushima, which will participate in Senbatsu for the first time in the 21st century, is one of the best preparatory schools in the prefecture.

The baseball team has only 13 members, including the female manager.

If it is a strong school, the club may exceed 100 members, but among the members participating in this tournament, we won a ticket to Koshien with the fewest members.

There is only one female manager, Yuna Nagano, a second-year student.

It plays an important role in the small number of members.

A word from a childhood friend changed my high school life greatly!

Mr. Nagano joined the baseball team because of a childhood friend.

"I'm going to take you to Koshien, will you come in?"

When I was about to graduate from junior high school, I was invited by captain Kaito Morimoto, who had decided to go to the same Joto High School.

Captain MORIMOTO Kaito
: "If I decide to do it, I wanted a manager who would really do it until the end, and I wanted a manager who I could rely on, so I invited him."

Yuna Nagano
: "I joined because there were other players I knew, so I felt safe, and although I didn't know much about Koshien, I had the image that it was an amazing place."

I have no experience with athletic clubs, and I am not very good at exercising.

I wasn't confident in my physical strength.

Mr. Nagano, who said, "I was happy to be relied on," accepted the job without knowing baseball at all.

Even so, as I listened to the club members talk about the "Koshien" that high school baseball players are aiming for with a twinkle in their eyes, I gradually felt a sense of longing.

"Director, I want to do knockers!"

About a year ago (April 1), there was a turning point for Mr. Nagano.

On that day, the coach was absent and the players were acting as knockers.

"If you knock, you won't get a knock,"

I heard the player say his true feelings.

During the practice, Mr. Nagano pondered whether there was any solution.

"I wonder if there is anything I can do to increase the practice time of the players when there are few members in the club," says Nagano,

who has a personality that acts immediately when he thinks.

I took action abruptly.

I sent a LINE message to director Ryosuke Shinji that night.

Mr. Nagano: I would like you to teach me how to knock...

Director Shinji: Amazing. Leave it to me. What time will it come?

Director Shinji was surprised but readily agreed.

The next day, at 7 a.m., the "special training" for the coach and the female manager, which is not available to the club members, began.

Mr. Nagano:
"The coach asked me, 'Which hand do you use to raise the knock ball, right or left?' but I didn't understand what it meant. I started by learning how to grip a bat. At first, I was just swinging a knock bat and I had muscle pain all over my body."

While receiving guidance from the coach from the morning, we started with the bare bones.

Eventually, I started hitting the ball and kept hitting it into the net.

It was my first experience holding a knock bat and swinging it with force.

Naturally, there were many times when the ball did not hit the bat.

As I passed the number, my hands became blistered and bloody.

Sometimes the skin on my hands and fingers would tear.

As Captain Morimoto says, Mr. Nagano is determined.

I decided, "If I decide to do it, I will do it,"

and I didn't quit.

I had the players wrap the taping around me and I kept hitting the ball every day.

There were times when I felt embarrassed to show my players that I wasn't good at it.

One day I was still swinging the bat.

It was decided to knock on the players with a word from the coach.

It had been two months since I started my secret training.

Mr. Nagano:
"The coach told me, 'It's important to work hard behind the scenes, but it's also important to show that you're making an effort,' and I got a fugiri.

Coach
Shinji: "In the beginning, I scored 0 points (laughs), but now I think I'm finally about 70 to 80 points. When they told me I wanted to knock, I was honestly surprised and wondered, "What is Mr. Nagano saying!?" But I was practicing more than the club members. Because she works hard every day, the members of the club felt that we had to do it too."

Last Christmas (2022), all the members of the club gave us "wooden knock bats" and "batting gloves".

However, just the other day, it broke while I was knocking.

The bat of memories broke, and tears spilled out of my eyes.

Coach Shinji, who was looking depressed, suggested that he buy it at the club expense this time, and he was again presented with the same model knock bat as the first one.

Practice at Koshien: Female club members are banned in the past

In high school baseball, female club members were not allowed to participate in practice at Koshien.

The reason was that it was dangerous for female club members to enter a field where hard balls were flying around.

In the summer of 2016, during a practice session held at Koshien Stadium before the start of the tournament, the women's manager participated as an assistant to knock and was stopped by tournament officials.

This decision was met with a variety of voices from outside.

In response to this trend, since last summer, the female club members have been recognized to play the role of passing knock balls mainly in practice just before matches.

Senbatsu also recognized knockers.

Nagano is the first member of the women's club to knock during a practice session before a Koshien match in the history of 95 senbatsu.

The coach is planning to entrust him with infield knocks for about two minutes out of the seven-minute defensive practice.

Ms.
Nagano: "I'm already nervous, and I hope that it will be an opportunity to change the awareness of women, not just baseball, but society as a whole."

On the stage of dreams...

The Koshien competition was decided, and the uniform was renewed.

As the 13th member of the club, Mr. Nagano, who had been wearing a jersey all his life, was handed the uniform for the first time in preparation for the knock at Koshien.

Coach
Shinji: "To be honest, I'm feeling a lot of pressure every day and I'm struggling, because it's not an easy feeling to say, 'Hooray, I can hit.' But she herself is very determined for her role. I know she'll be nervous, but it's going to change her life. It's a knock of fate. I want you to do your best."

Mr.
Nagano: "I felt that the 13 people were connected wearing uniforms. If you actually stand on the field, you may not be able to do it well due to nervousness. But if I'm nervous, I think it can be contagious to the players. If I can hit the ball the way I practice, I think I'll reassure everyone. I don't think I can do more than practice, but I want to hit one ball at a time with a mindset, rather than focusing on hitting well. My goal is not to be a manager who can help me, but a manager who gets in trouble when I get sick."

My high school life as a member of a baseball team started by a sudden.

It's almost time to knock on the Koshien that 13 people got ...

Joto's first match is scheduled for 22 June.

Joto High School's first match will be against Tokai University Sugo High School (Tokyo) on 22nd of this month.

Ayasato
Suzuki, Network News DepartmentAfter joining the
Sports News Department in 2009,
I joined the current club "Cool!" This is my impression when I
first saw Mr.
Nagano's knock. I hope that her challenge will serve as a new guidepost for the female club members.