Ikoma Boys is a junior high school hardball baseball team in Nara Prefecture. It is a prestigious team that competes for the top spots in the national tournament every year and has produced many professional baseball players. The team’s 13th class, which was founded in 2005, is now in its fourth year at university. Each member continues to play baseball at a strong university, but when they were in junior high school, a small “incident” occurred on the team. One member was diagnosed with a serious illness. How did they deal with that difficulty and use it to their advantage now? We spoke to the members at that time.
Mount Ikoma, 642 meters high, is located on the border between Osaka and Nara prefectures. The TV tower at the summit is a symbol of Osaka that can be seen from the city, and there is also a shrine and an amusement park, making it a mountain beloved by the people of both prefectures.
On the north side of the Ikoma Mountains, including Mt. Ikoma, there is the Hanna Road, which connects Osaka and Nara. It is a major road with a steep gradient and large curves. Turning off this road onto a side road, you will come to the grounds of the Ikoma Boys’ junior high school baseball team.
This spring, they came in second at the 54th Japan Youth Baseball Spring National Tournament held at Ota Stadium. This is a prestigious team that has participated in the Japan Youth Baseball Summer Championship nine times, winning once. This year, they won the qualifying round again, and are set to participate for the 10th time.
Founded in 2005, the 22nd class was accepted in April of this year. There are other teams with decades of history, and newer teams, so it’s a mid-career team in terms of history. There are around 20 students in each grade, so it’s a small number considering it’s a strong team.
An incident that happened to a prestigious Boys
Takaya Otono, a 13th-year member of this team, is currently a fourth-year student at Tohoku Fukushi University.
As a student coach, he also takes on the role of hitting practice and pitching. He also occasionally discusses with the captain and manager to decide who will be playing in the games, and is responsible for overall management.
Nine years ago, in May when Otono was a first-year junior high school student and had just joined the team, she felt discomfort in her right knee.
Osteosarcoma is a disease that we hear about quite often, but it develops around the knees and shoulders during adolescence, and there are only 200 to 300 cases per year. To put it simply, it is bone cancer.
2024-07-05 08:07:06
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