Naoto Shiozuka: Participating in the Senbatsu Koshien

I currently serve as the manager of the Yonago Shoin High School Baseball Club in Tottori Prefecture. During my time as a Keio student, I belonged to the Athletic Association Baseball Club.

After graduation, I worked at a financial institution in my hometown of Kagoshima. After working there for four years, I could not let go of my passion for high school baseball and Koshien, so I stepped into the world of high school baseball. Through a fortunate connection, I began working at Yonago Shoin High School in Tottori Prefecture. After serving as a coach for about a year, I was appointed manager. I am now in my sixth year.

When I first took office, I focused primarily on student guidance. At the same time, in order to bring out the students' independence, I guided them so that they could think and act for themselves. Our small daily efforts led to results in prefectural and Chugoku regional tournaments, including our first victory in 21 years at the spring prefectural tournament in my first year. In the summer championship prefectural tournament of my fourth year, we entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a three-run lead. However, we suffered a come-from-behind loss when we were just one strike away, missing out on Koshien. It was a game where I felt the difficulty of baseball firsthand, and I felt extremely frustrated. However, that frustration was passed down to the younger players, who finished as runners-up in the following autumn prefectural tournament and reached the finals of the Autumn Chugoku Regional Tournament for the first time in the club's history. As a result, we were able to participate in this year's Senbatsu Koshien for the first time in 33 years.

I believe we were able to come this far because I was able to learn from and receive support from many people involved, including Manager Tetsuya Horii of the Athletic Association Baseball Club and Manager Takahiko Mori-bayashi of the Keio Senior High School Baseball Club. At Koshien, we lost our first match against Hanamaki Higashi High School. By participating in the Invitational High School Baseball Championship, both the team and I realized that further improvement is necessary to win on the national stage.

Our school's goal is to be the best in Japan. At the same time, our objectives are "giving back" and "character formation." I want to emphasize not just winning games or getting better, but thinking and acting for oneself through the sport of baseball to form an independent organization. High school baseball is supported by many people and has a history of over 100 years. In order to pass the baton of the past 100 years to the next 100, I want to continue making efforts while considering what my mission is as I sense the changing times.