Although they were narrowly defeated…they fought hard in the Senbatsu tournament! Iki High School Baseball Club, Nagasaki: 21 members who grew up on a remote island, “To the Holy Land Far Away”.

Iki High School in Nagasaki Prefecture put up a strong showing in the Spring Sembatsu Tournament. They faced the prestigious Toyo University Himeji, and although Ren Sakashita, one of the best pitchers in the tournament, was not in great form, they scored two runs in the first inning and led until the fourth inning. However, the team did not back down from the challenge, and the game was hotly contested.

In the February 14, 2025 issue of FRIDAY, nonfiction writer Yuji Yanagawa interviewed Iki High School captain and ace Syugo Uragami and coach Toru Sakamoto. We would like to reproduce the article for you.

21 ball players and 4 managers who have been in friendly competition since childhood

A 70-minute jetfoil ride from the port of Hakata, Kyushu, to the port of Gonoura on Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, located in the Genkai Sea, was marked by a banner that read.

Iki to Koshien!

On January 24, the island received good news. The baseball team finished second in the Nagasaki Tournament last fall and reached the top eight in the Kyushu Tournament. The team’s feat, which was called a “once-in-a-century miracle” by the local community, was recognized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation, and the team was selected to participate in the National High School Baseball Tournament for the 21st Century.

Coach Toru Sakamoto, 40, was relieved.

After the fall tournament, the islanders, including the parents, were very excited. However, I had to be prepared for the possibility of not being selected. I told the students to be aware of their status as a school recommended for the 21st Century Quota and to aim to go to Koshien on their own in the summer. And if they received an invitation from Koshien, they should switch their minds to the Sembatsu Tournament.”

A major reason for the school’s selection for the 21st Century Quota is the school’s attitude, as it has worked hard to play baseball despite the disadvantages of being on a remote island. The school, where a quarter of the students go on to public universities, has classes until the seventh period, and practice time on weekdays is only two hours until 6:30 p.m., when the school dismisses completely. The ground is shared with the women’s softball and track teams, and during the fall tournaments, the teams travel back and forth between Iki and the main island of Kyushu, and during the Nagasaki summer tournaments, when the teams compete in consecutive games, they are away from the island for long periods of time.

The only way to play practice matches was to take a ferry to Karatsu Port in Saga Prefecture and charter a large bus there. In many cases, the costly and time-consuming practice matches are cancelled due to rain or wave conditions.

Coach Sakamoto, who participated in the Summer Koshien Championships as a player at Hasami High School (Nagasaki Prefecture), says, “There are some disadvantages to the islands, but they are not the only ones.

I think we can turn the disadvantages of being on a remote island into advantages. For example, it takes 1 hour and 40 minutes by ferry to get to Karatsu Port, but we can use that time to hold meetings, study, and do some light stretching. There is inevitably a financial burden on each family, but the handicap of being on a remote island is not as great as people outside the island might think.

Surprisingly, baseball is very popular in Iki, partly because there are no soccer clubs in the four junior high schools, and the level of junior high school baseball is generally high. When the core players (new third-year students) of Iki High School were in their second year of junior high school, Gonoura Junior High School was the strongest in the prefecture, and once won the Kyushu Tournament. Katsumoto Junior High School, which is also located on the island, defeated Gonoura in its last summer and participated in the All-China Tournament. Furthermore, the new second-year students are also the generation that won the “Remote Island Koshien,” a competition in which junior high school students in similar circumstances compete for supremacy.

The Iki Nine is a group of 21 ball players and four managers who were born in Iki and have been engaged in friendly competition since their childhood, aiming for the far-off Koshien. The captain and ace, Syugo Urakami (from Gonoura Junior High School), says, “The Koshien is the place to play baseball.

I have dreamed of playing in the Koshien since I was in the first grade of elementary school when I started playing baseball, and it was the mound I wanted to pitch on the most. We were born on the same island, so we have been competing with each other since our junior high school days and raising the level of our game. I came to Iki High School with the intention of going to Koshien with such friends.

However, last summer’s Nagasaki tournament, in which underclassmen Urakami and his teammates were the main players, ended in a first-round loss.