Urasoe Commercial HS team presents “soil from Koshien” to player

Urasoe Commercial HS team presents

On September 25, at the Chubu Agricultural High School in Uruma, manager Takamasa Miyara (third from left), captain Ryosuke Uchima (extreme right) and pitcher Taiyu Miyazato (extreme left) of UCHS gave Yo Teruya (second from left) some soil from Koshien and a ball used in practice.


September 26, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

On September 25, the Urasoe Commercial High School (UCHS) baseball team that took part in the national Koshien Summer Championship presented some “sacred soil” from the Koshien Stadium and a practice ball to Yo Teruya, a third-year student of the Okinawa Prefectural High School for Special-Needs Education. He is the first special-needs school student in Japan to take part in official games, which he did as a player of Okinawa Chubu Agricultural High School’s branch class.

Takamasa Miyara, the manager of the UCHS team, has worked at a special-needs school and his talking to Teruya was the beginning of exchange with UCHS. In early August, UCHS players gave Teruya their team uniform when he practiced with them and promised him to win their games at Koshien and bring him the soil.

On the same day, manager Miyara, captain Ryusuke Uchima and pitcher Taiyu Miyazato visited Chubu Agricultural High School in Uruma to give Teruya the soil from Koshien and a ball they used in practice during the national championship. Miyara smiled saying, “We were able to keep our promise.” Teruya said, “Every high school student who plays baseball dreams of playing at Koshien. I do too. I will treasure this soil.”

Miyara said, “I was moved that Teruya dreams of playing at Koshien despite being at a special-needs school. I hope that his efforts will encourage students who need special education.” Uchima said that he was glad to see Teruya smiling. Miyazato said that Teruya has always kept trying and that he respects him for this.

Teruya was fifth in the batting order and played left fielder in the prefectural elimination tournament to choose the team for Koshien this summer. His team lost, but is proud that he was able to play in the game. After the elimination games, he went to a club and helped to coach junior players. “It was good that I have kept playing baseball. After the game, I came to like it more than ever,” said Teruya with a smile.

(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)

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