Monday, October 30, 2006

Waseda American Football Beats Nihon Univ.

Waseda beat Nihon University 28-20 yesterday.
My alma mater Waseda Big Bears are now 4-0. We are playing Senshu Univ next week and after that Hosei Univ. which are the reigning Kanto college champs.

To beat Nihon U is a big feat for us since they have beaten us 30 times in all 39 official season games we have played them since 1940. Our loss when I was senior is included in one of the 39 losses against them.

The last time we beat them was in 1993. At that time Waseda had not beaten them in 40 years. But since 1997, Nihon U lost their edge. Yesterday was the first match up in 10 years.

Nihon U Phoenix had a charismatic coach named Shinotake who passed away earlier this year. He had a aura that none of the other coaches had.
The other coaches including Waseda were all part time Sunday coaches. But you can't win football games that way. Thing started changing for Waseda when Takao Asakura became coach. He graduated 2 years earlier than me and was the captain of the team when I was a sophmore.
After winning a championship with the Asahi Beer Silverstar he worked for the NFL Japan office for a while and then quit to become the head coach of the Waseda Big Bears. He has shown a clear goal to win the college championship and a plan to achieve it. We are supporting him.
I hope we can make it to Koshien where the Kanto champs and Kansai champs fight for the Japan collge championship. In 2002 we went to the championship game but lost to Ristumeikan 51-14.
Our 06 team has a good chance to be the champ.

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