Chuo’s lacrosse club aims to become Japan’s best college team

目指すは学生日本一

 

―中大ラクロス部の挑戦―

Image from Chuo Men's lacrosse team
Image from Chuo Men's lacrosse team

Few students are seen on the campus of Chuo University when it gets unusually quiet during the summer vacation. But its playfields brim with the vigor of student athletes. An attentive visitor to the school in early August might have found some of them playing an unfamiliar sport. They were practicing lacrosse. It is a sport in which players belonging to two teams shoot a rubber ball into each other’s goal using a long stick with a mesh pocket at its head. It is spelled bomokyu in Japanese which literally means a stick, mesh and ball. A ball shot by a skilled player sometimes runs as fast as 150 km per hour. Players also run after the ball at a breakneck speed. That is why lacrosse is known as the fastest sport played on the ground.

夏休みに入った。学生のいない校内には静けさが漂う。しかし、校外の各運動場は学生の熱気で溢れている。よく見ると、普段見慣れないスポーツが行われている。ラクロスだ。棒網球といわれるように、先端に網のついたスティックでゴム製のボールを運び、ゴールを狙う。球速は時に時速150kmを超える。ボールを追い、選手も猛スピードでコートを駆け回る。ラクロスが陸上最速のスポーツと形容される所以だ。

 

The number of lacrosse players is estimated at some 25,000 in Japan and 600,000 across the world. While women’s lacrosse is popular in Japan probably because players are usually dressed in skirts for their game. But men’s lacrosse is still little known. Chuo University has both men’s and women’s lacrosse clubs.

 

日本のラクロス競技人口は約2万5千人。世界では60万人にも及ぶ。スカートが試合着の女子ラクロスは学生スポーツとして知名度は高いが、男子ラクロスはまだまだマイナーなスポーツだ。中央大学には男子と女子の2つのラクロス部がある。

Tomotaka Kanno, a fourth grader of the Faculty of Commerce who captains the men’s club, spoke about his club during an interview with Hakumon Herald. He said, “Our club, nicknamed the Bandits, was founded in 1989. It belongs to the first division of the Kanto Collegiate Lacrosse League. All of our 110 members work hard every day to become No. 1 team in the league.” Kanno happened to take part in a lacrosse practice sponsored by the Bandits a few weeks after he was enrolled in Chuo. Fascinated by the sport and moved by the warmth of senior club members, he made up his mind to join the Bandits without hesitation. Looking back at the time, he said, “I felt this club may make my four years at Chuo really rich and fruitful.”

「私たち男子ラクロス部BANDITS(バンディッツ)は、1989年に設立された団体です。関東学生ラクロスリーグ1部に所属し、110名の部員全員で学生日本一を目指し活動しています」こう語るのは、主将の菅野智隆(かんの・ともたか=商学部4年)さんだ。新入生歓迎の時期に偶然参加したラクロス体験会で、ラクロスの魅力と先輩部員の温かさに触れ、「ここなら充実した4年間を送れる」と入部を決心したという。

 

After three years of activity, Kanno now plays as the team’s goalie as well as captain. Commenting on his team, he said, “Members of the club who entered Chuo with me in 2013 belong to the generation that simultaneously experienced both the club’s promotion to the first division of the Kanto Collegiate Lacrosse League and its recognition as an accredited member of the Chuo Physical Education League. I thought we wouldn’t be able to become No. 1 student team if we remained indulged in a harmonious and friendly atmosphere as we did in the past. As captain, I have been trying to change my club into one that will be keener to win a match. I have also been urging my teammates to be conscious in daily life that they represent Chuo University when they play in a match.”

3年間の活動を経て、今はゴールキーパーのポジションでゴールを守る傍ら、主将としてチームのけん引役を任されている。「私たちは1部昇格と同時に、1年のときに大学の公認団体にとなった経験を持つ世代です。それまでの和気あいあいとした雰囲気では学生日本一の夢は到底達成できないという危機感から、私は主将として以前よりも勝ちにこだわる部に変えました。さらに部員には中央大学の名を背負っている意識を持って、日々の生活をするよう徹底しました。」(菅野さん)

 

 

His pep talk seemed to be taking effect. All members of the Bandits were in dead earnest throughout their practice. They should have been so just ahead of this season’s first match of the Kanto Collegiate Lacrosse League scheduled for August 13. It will be the last chance for Kanno’s contemporaries to win the league championship. “We are taking on Seikei University who have a good capacity of balance. We haven’t lost to them in the official matches for the last two years. But we shouldn’t be overconfident. By smashing them, we will prepare for our next matches against leading contenders Keio University and Tokyo University scheduled in September,” he told Hakumon Herald.

 菅野選手が言うとおり、練習中の部員の表情は真剣そのものだ。それもそのはず、今週8月13日には学生日本一を決める関東学生ラクロスリーグを控えている。彼が率いる中大ラクロス部25期生には、これが最後の「日本一」のチャンスだ。「初戦の相手、成蹊大学はバランス力で優れています。ここ2年間の公式戦では負けてはいませんが、油断は禁物です。必ず勝って、来月の強豪・慶應、東大戦に臨みます」と菅野さんは言う。

 

Lacrosse is still an unfamiliar sport in Japan. However, you will have a completely different impression if you go to the stadium and watch the players play with great vigor and speed. Kanno was full of eagerness to win a match when he said, “I’ll show the culmination of my devotion to lacrosse in the past four years. Come and watch our matches. I’m sure even beginners will enjoy a heartburning excitement.”

 

ラクロスは一般になじみのないスポーツだが、一度競技場に足を運び、スピードと迫力あふれるプレーを見みれば、印象が大きく変わるはずだ。「ラクロス一筋、私の4年間の集大成を見せます。初めての方でも、きっと心燃える感動を味わうことができます。ぜひ、試合を観戦しに来てください。」菅野選手の眼には勝利への意欲がにじみ出ていた。(Written by: Hideki Kato)