This time it's outside hitter number 1!
#19 Tatsunobu Otsuka
Otsuka won the JVA-JOC Cup (award given to the most promising player of that generation) at the JOC Cup when he was in his third year of junior high school, so I knew his name from that time, and I was interested in him because he was from the Panthers Junior team and thought it was unusual. After that, he played in the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament as a first-year student at Rakunan, but I don't remember much about the video footage of that time. However, he was featured in the monthly volleyball magazine as one of the "first-year quartet," so I got the impression that "the JOC MVP and the ace of the winning team (Shiga selection) went to Rakunan together." And before I could see him play closely, he was selected as a representative for the Asian Youth Tournament along with Sato (currently at Tokai University) even though he was only a first-year high school student, and Nishida, who was born early in the year, also participated, and he was in the starting lineup and the team won, so I thought, "He's a really amazing player. He's already 192 cm tall and apparently can receive. I want to see him soon."
The next time I watched it properly was the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament Final in my second year. It was a very close match in which Rakunan barely beat Higashiyama, with the score of 41-43 in the second set and 25-23 in all other sets. Rakunan was introduced as having a double ace of Otsuka and Tarumi (currently at Tsukuba University), but even though he was in the back row, the ball was still tossed to Otsuka at the crucial moment, which showed that the setter had great trust in Otsuka, and he actually scored a lot of points. On the other hand, Tarumi, who is on the opposite side of the field, plays flashier at first glance, but makes many mistakes and lacks stability, while Otsuka is a bit plain, but is solid in both offense and defense, makes few mistakes, and is extremely stable. Moreover, he was tough enough to continue spiking to the end even when his teammates were getting cramps in the legs during the long, heated battle. These impressions have hardly changed even now. Among them, I thought that his high level of stability and lack of fluctuations were particularly outstanding, and I thought that he was more of a professional player than a fresh high school student (lol).
Even back then, there was a problem of who to put opposite Ishikawa on the senior national team. Yanagida has good serve and spikes, but there are concerns about his blocking and reception, and Fukuzawa's serve is weak and his attack is unstable. But Otsuka might fit in there well, he's tall, has a good balance of offense and defense, and is stable. I want him to try out for the senior national team soon (laughs). He's been thinking about it since he was about a third-year high school student, and finally made his debut this year. Wow, I've been waiting. I think it would have been fine if he'd made it earlier, but I'm glad he made it. Since then, he hasn't had too many breakdowns in the VNL and I think he's performed as expected. At this stage, I have the impression that he is slightly behind Takahashi Ai and Takanashi, who debuted at the same time, but I think he's been able to show his high potential by being entrusted with the opposite position. His physical strength and skills will surely grow even more from now on, and he will be able to make up for it. I also hope his serve gets stronger.
He has a lovely smile and is an athlete we can look forward to seeing do well at the Tokyo Olympics and beyond!
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