<figure id="attachment_435597" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435597" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a703d109"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/7ec7215dbd101212714501c66e001743.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435597" class="wp-caption-text">The audience was captivated by the two &#8220;supernovas&#8221; (from the September 4, 2003 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In &#8220;Playback Friday,&#8221; we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will look back at <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Baseball is changing!</span> 　 <span class="strongInContent">New ballplayers on a different world level: Kiyomiya and Okoye, two monsters raised this way.</span></p>
<p> The 97th National High School Baseball Championship was held in 2003, the 100th anniversary of the start of the tournament. The two &#8220;supernovas&#8221; who thrilled Koshien were Kotaro Kiyomiya (16 at the time), a freshman at Waseda Jitsugyo representing West Tokyo, and Rui Okoye (18 at the time), a junior at Kanto Daiichi representing East Tokyo. (All ages and titles are current at the time. Descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Kiyomiya created a sensation as a freshman</span></h3>
<p> His father, Katsuyuki, a rugby player who played for Waseda University and Suntory and is the coach of Yamaha Motor Jubilo, and his mother, Yukiyo, the captain of the Keio University golf club, are members of the elite DNA of Waseda Jitsugyo. His two-run homerun in the third round against Tokai University Kofu was his first at Koshien, and Kazuki Araraoka, the coach of his old Chofu Senior High School team, was surprised.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He said, &#8220;In the West Tokyo qualifying round, Kotaro was trying to hit the ball with the point in front of him. He had changed to hitting for hits. I guess his desire to win at any cost made him do that. At Koshien, he was back to his usual imposing form, swinging at once with the ball close at hand.</span></p>
<p> With a two-run lead in the 6th inning, he hit a bases-clearing triple, giving him four hits and three runs batted in on the day. He commented with a relaxed attitude about this timely hit, saying, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;I felt like I had been waiting for this moment.</span> This relaxed, relaxed attitude, which was the result of his relaxed attitude, may have led to the explosion of his batting average at the Koshien Stadium.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The more people support him and the more expectations are placed on him, the more he can show his ability. He is able to turn pressure into positive energy. That is because he is confident enough to meet the expectations. Kotaro has practiced that much.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He is still in his first year of high school. He will be under expectations and pressure for a long time to come. And that will make Kotaro even bigger. I really think he is a monster,&#8221; said Yaraoka.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Okoye was a &quot;dekunobo&quot; until junior high school."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Okoye&#8217;s &#8220;High School Debut</span></h3>
<p> On the other hand, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;To be honest, I was a dekunobo until junior high school. He was bored and didn&#8217;t put much effort into training. He was just a fast runner and didn&#8217;t even make the bench until his first year of high school.</span></p>
<p> Okoye, who has a Nigerian father, boasts an outstanding physique, speed, strength, and flexibility, but while Kiyomiya had attracted attention since he was 13 years old when he won the Little League World Championship, Okoye was making his &#8220;debut&#8221; in high school.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> That all changed after a tournament in Tokyo in the fall of his freshman year. The new team, which included classmates such as Masato Ito, who plays third on the current team, won the championship. Impressed by the team&#8217;s appearance in the Senbatsu tournament, he changed his mindset, saying, &#8220;I want to be part of that team, too.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He swung the bat all day long. He ate three bowls of rice every day, increased his weight by 15 kg to 85 kg, and became able to lift 85 kg on the bench press, which had previously weighed only 30 kg. The only problem was his batting, which he said he lacked confidence in. Okoye told this magazine, &#8220;Until last year, I was pulling with my uppercut.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Until last year, I was pulling with an uppercut, but I have modified my swing to be more compact and closer to the level. This gives me more surface to make contact with the ball, and even if my timing is off, I can hit the ball hard in the opposite direction, so I can get more hits.</span></p>
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<p> The results of his hitting modifications were evident in the two triples to right-center field in the second round game against Takaoka Sho. In the quarterfinals against Konan, he scored the winning run in the ninth inning by hitting a straight ball on the inside pitch, which had been his weak point. Defensively, in the first round game against Chukyo University Chukyo, he made a super catch on a big hit to left-center that would have surely scored three runs if it had gone past him. He saved the team from a pinch and brought excitement to the stadium.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to be pigeonholed as this type of player. I don&#8217;t want to be pigeonholed as this type of player,&#8221; he said. I want to learn how to put spin on the ball like Sho Nakata of Nippon Ham, and become a player who can hit both singles and long balls. I want to become a player who is top-notch in all aspects of the game, something that has never existed before.</span></p>
<p> Such a grand dream was already within reach.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" After the two were not so successful"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">The two were both professional players with a ringing endorsement. &#8230;&#8230;</span></h3>
<p> In this tournament, Kiyomiya&#8217;s Waseda Jitsugyo and Okoye&#8217;s Kanto Daiichi both made it to the top four, but were eliminated by Sendai Ikuei and Tokai University Sagami, respectively. In the spring of his junior year, Kiyomiya returned to Koshien, but in the summer he was defeated by Tokai University Sugo in the final of the Tokyo Tournament.</p>
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<p> In the 2005 draft, Kiyomiya was selected by Nippon Ham after seven teams competed for him. After a period of poor results, Tsuyoshi Shinjo took over as manager in 2010, and Kiyomiya was ordered to lose 9 kg. After being ordered to reduce his weight by 9 kg, he gradually improved his performance, and in the 2012 season, he marked a batting average of 30%, even though he did not reach the regulation batting average.</p>
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<p> Okoye, on the other hand, was selected first overall by the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles in the 2003 draft. In his rookie year, he made the Opening Day lineup, and in his second year as a pro in 2005, he played in 41 games and hit .300, but he has been in the doldrums since then. In 2010, he was drafted by the Giants, but to date, he seems to have been unable to establish himself in the first team.</p>
<p> Fans believe that the brilliance of the summer 10 years ago was not a fleeting moment.</p>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Kiyomiya and Okoye, who brought excitement to the Koshien Stadium"></div>
<figure id="attachment_435598" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435598" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6dc84d2a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/ccbca13ae257ba96c51ed1c33a375535.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435598" class="wp-caption-text">He cleared Masumi Kuwata&#8217;s &#8220;2 hits &amp; 8 runs as a freshman. He has already made his mark in the history of baseball (from the September 4, &#8217;15 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_435599" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435599" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d4506d21"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/d978ac2aeda839c99eeb8aa840f467e6.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435599" class="wp-caption-text"> At first glance, he seemed to be a cocky character with a big mouth, but in fact, he is very considerate of his teammates. He was already assured of being named captain two years later. At the time, he was 184 cm tall and weighed 97 kg (from the September 4, &#8217;15 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_435600" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435600" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="66657dcd"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/1ed435cd97d4ede452b959cb7a86ecaa.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435600" class="wp-caption-text"> His defense and base running, utilizing his 50m 5.9s leg strength, were said by some to be &#8220;already at the level of a professional first-team player&#8221; (from the September 4, 2003 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_435601" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435601" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3cbfc6c7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/517fe99f3f1d136bd99b8592d784f5b2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435601" class="wp-caption-text"> His backstop catch with two outs in the third inning against Chukyo University Chukyo saved the team from a bases-loaded jam and contributed greatly to the 1-0 victory (from the September 4, 2003 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_435602" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435602" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f2d27325"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/b94c3e8eb1f7a14dfe70483f2b03f9f6.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435602" class="wp-caption-text"> She was smart enough to understand the intent of the question and answer it specifically. By the way, he did not have a girlfriend and told us that strawberries were his favorite food. At the time, she was 183 cm tall and weighed 85 kg (from the September 4, &#8217;15 issue).</figcaption></figure>


 Tetsuko TAKEMOTO

 Playback] A look back at what this magazine reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. This year's Koshien Tournament, in which Hiroryo's withdrawal from the tournament became a hot topic of conversation, was made possible by the sudden appearance of two "supernovae" in the summer of 10 years ago. Here is a look back at their success.

Playback ’15] Two “Monsters” Thrilled Koshien… Kiyomiya and Okoye Captivated the Crowd in the Summer of 2015

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