The 73rd All Japan High School Volleyball Championship, which began on Tuesday, January 5th, held the men's and women's finals on Sunday, the 10th, bringing five days of fierce competition to a close with Higashi Fukuoka (Fukuoka) winning the men's championship and Shujitsu (Okayama) winning the women's championship.
This time, I would like to write down what I thought while watching the tournament online and on TV.
*The author did not watch all the matches. In particular, he hardly watched any of the women's matches. He mainly watched the men's matches in brief.
1. I'm glad that the Spring High Volleyball Tournament is being held again this year.
This year, we faced an unprecedented crisis in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Inter-High and National Sports Festivals were canceled, and the Spring High Volleyball Tournament, the last hope for high school volleyball players aiming to win the national championship, was decided to be held without spectators. As a result, prefectural preliminaries were also started one after another, but depending on the social situation, it felt like it could be canceled at any time. Since January, the number of infected people in Tokyo and elsewhere has increased dramatically, so we had to be on our toes until the very end. Nevertheless, we managed to hold the tournament. I'm really glad.
2. It was unfortunate that Higashiyama withdrew midway through the race. But his decision was correct.
Higashiyama (Kyoto) was the previous boys' champion. They had won a high-level match against Rakunan in the Kyoto Prefecture qualifying finals and advanced to the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament, so I was really looking forward to seeing them do well in the main tournament. Higashiyama's first opponent, who appeared in the second round, was Tokai University Sagami (Kanagawa), led by Nishiyama, who boasts an astounding height of 355cm (is that true?). I thought they might put up a good fight, but Higashiyama won the match without any trouble, keeping each set to under 20 points, with 17 points in the first set and 19 points in the second. I honestly thought, "They could win two consecutive championships."
And the next day. I looked at the results during my break from work and thought, "Higashiyama... they lost?! They lost 2-0 to Takamatsu Kogei (Kagawa)?! What the?!" I looked into it later and found out that one of the players had a fever that morning and was forced to withdraw by the tournament officials' decision. Withdrawal... The favorite to win the tournament withdrew and left the Spring High. When I thought about the Higashiyama players, I felt a sense of helplessness. In particular, I had covered the Spring High finals the previous year and had spoken to some of the current Higashiyama third-year players, so their faces came to mind.
But I think the tournament officials made the right decision. It's hindsight, but it seems that five of the Higashiyama players, including the student with a fever, tested positive after that. I hope that Higashiyama's players don't waste this experience and can make it into the future. This situation could have happened to any team. It just happened to happen to Higashiyama this time.
3. Maki-kun, who is 210cm tall, has improved.
Takamatsu Technical High School's ace player Maki, who beat Higashiyama by default, is an astounding 210cm tall. That's taller than any other Japanese volleyball player. However, like Fushimi at 207cm and Otake Papa at 208cm, super-sized Japanese players tend to be somewhat clumsy. Indeed, when I watched Maki's play as a freshman last year, I could see that he was still awkward, or that he didn't seem to be able to handle his large body well. But this year, as a sophomore, it was different. Not only was he able to make powerful spikes, but he was also adept at receiving serves and passing. He wasn't just big. If he continues to grow at this rate, he'll be even more impressive when he becomes a third-year student. I'm really looking forward to seeing him.
4. Ryukita-kun was amazing. He was unrivaled.
Higashi Fukuoka defeated Takamatsu Kogei, led by Maki, in a full set and went on to win the championship, and Yanagida was the ace and driving force behind the victory. Apparently he scored around 40 points in the final by himself. Their opponent in the final, Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo), had great blocks and floor defense, but for Yanagida, three blocks didn't matter. His ability to handle a high set completely surpassed Sundai's defense. It was a truly spectacular performance. At that level, it was almost cheating. He is also one of the players whose future is exciting. I wonder what he'll do next. Probably Tokai University.
5. The team's level of completion was lower than in previous years.
As expected, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no tournaments for any of the teams, and they were unable to play practice matches as they wanted, so overall the teams seemed less complete than usual. I think this was also reflected in the occasional coordination and pairing errors in the final. Since the team coordination was not as refined as in previous years, it makes sense that Higashi Fukuoka, led by Yanagikita, who was the strongest "individual" in this tournament, won. To be honest, I even think that the Kyoto Prefecture qualifying final was more interesting and of a higher level than the Spring High final. That's why, to repeat, Higashiyama's withdrawal was truly regrettable.
6. The boys' results were as expected, but the girls' results were unexpected.
In the men's tournament, with the exception of Higashiyama's withdrawal, the highly-anticipated teams advanced to both the best eight and best four in a fairly predictable manner. In contrast, there were some upsets in the women's tournament. First of all, both the winner Shujitsu and the runner-up Osaka International Takii (Osaka) advanced as unseeded teams (I don't remember a final between two unseeded teams), and none of the Tokyo teams, which have all three teams in the best eight, made it to the top eight. What's more, it was surprising to see the previous year's winner Higashi Kyushu Ryukoku (Oita) lose the first set of the semi-finals, losing by a score of 0-13 to Osaka International Takii, which was a public execution.
7. There are no large female athletes.
There were several tall players on the boys' team, including Maki-kun and Higashi Fukuoka's 198cm Kawano-kun, but no women. Furukawa Gakuen (Miyagi)'s Melissa, who was 185cm tall and had outstanding jumping ability, spiked down from an overwhelming height, but there was no Japanese player who could jump over 180cm. The aces of both schools in the final were also in the high 170cm, and Toryu's ace was probably in the low 160cm. Since the retirement of 186cm Kimura Saori, the Japanese women's national team has not had a spiker tall enough to jump over 180cm. I hope someone will come along soon to replace Saorin. Or will we just have to wait for Melissa to become a naturalized citizen?
8. There are more foreign players or players with foreign roots.
Like Melissa, I think there are more and more foreign players or players with roots in foreign countries. Until now, there were only a few high schools with Chinese players, but in recent years, when I look at the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament player guide, I've noticed that katakana names are becoming more common. There aren't many high schools that recruit foreign student players like in high school basketball, but I think that globalization is also progressing in Japan, with international marriages and other things. I hope that this trend will lead to more and more tall talents.
9. Can't the best six be the recipient of the Outstanding Player Award?
I think about this every time. The Spring High Outstanding Player Award is given to two players from each of the winning and runner-up teams, and one from each of the third-place teams, and usually the ace side attacker or captain is chosen. I wonder if that's interesting. Even if they choose from the best four teams, I think it would be more entertaining and interesting to choose the best six by position. Under the current system, there are rarely more than two middle-ranked players among the six (this time, there was only one middle-ranked player, Kaneda from Sundai Gakuen). In fact, it's common for there to be no middle-ranked players at all. Middle-ranked players are cool, too. Also, it's really simplistic that the best libero automatically becomes the libero of the winning team.
10. It's "high school volleyball" after all.
This is not a good meaning. After all, Japanese "high school volleyball" is unique. At the top level of universities and above the V-League, the rotations and positions are generally similar. In other words, outside players, middle players, and opposite players and setters form diagonals, and the order is back order. The outside player and libero serve and receive, and the opposite player focuses on attacking. The outside player also does pipe attacks. This is the standard in the world. The same is true for women. In Poland, the roles are so clearly defined that the outside player is called a "receiver" and the opposite player is called an "attacker". However, "high school volleyball" is different. As always, the opposite player is often a defensive player, and the source of points is the outside player (left). Pipe attacks, that is, first-tempo attacks from the back center, are rarely seen, and there is only a second-tempo time difference. There were probably many man-to-man blocks as well. At least among the men's top four teams, none of them played in standard positions or formations (Amagasaki City (Hyogo) was close, as they were in a front order).
I will use Poland as an example again. In Poland, even junior high school students play volleyball in the same formation as the senior national team. I actually saw this scene in person. The server receives three players, an outside player and a libero, the attack is basically first tempo, the outside player is a pipe, and the opposite player starts a back attack from the right. Lead block. Of course, they are junior high school students, so back attacks are not easy to decide, but still, what they do is the same as the national team. I think the situation is the same in other European countries and Brazil. In Japan, it will be like that after graduating from high school, and it's good that it will be like that. I hope that Japanese high school students will soon break away from the Galapagos-like "high school volleyball".
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