【HULABOWL現地レポート①】アメフト部宮澤選手：本場への挑戦

ルイジアナ州立大学：2019年カレッジフットボール全米チャンピオン。ノートルダム大学：おそらく最も豊かで長いフットボールパワーの伝統を持つ大学。テキサス大学、マイアミ大学、テネシー大：アメリカで最も誇りが高いフットボールプログラムの3つ。ミシガン州立大学、桜美林大学、UCLA、そして...ちょっと待て...桜美林大学？東京にある桜美林大学と、これらアメリカンフットボールの強豪校との共通点とは？

次回は、宮澤選手とフラボウル日本のコーディーネーターであるケビン・ジャクソン氏から、今回の経験についてお話をお伺いします。

Reported by KELLY FRANKLIN

ORLANDO, FLORIDA— Louisiana State–2019 collegiate football national champions. Notre Dame–probably the US university with the richest and longest tradition of football power. Texas, Miami and Tennessee– three of the winningest and proudest football programs in America. Michigan State, J. F. Oberlin, UCLA, and ….wait a minute…J. F. Oberlin University of Japan? What does J. F. Oberlin, a private university from the Tokyo area, have in common with these large US football giants?

This Saturday, players from all those schools and many others, including one sportsman traveling from Tokyo and representing J. F. Oberlin, are gathered in Orlando, Florida to prepare for participation in one of the oldest postseason All-Star games in the United States, the Hula Bowl.

Ryo Miyazawa, J. F. Oberlin star wide-receiver, joins Shigeya Masunami from Kansai University as the two representatives of Japanese collegiate football in this year's prestigious event. These two join over 110 other players from all across the US (and the world) who were selected to play in the showcase event based on their strong achievements in the just-concluded fall football season.

Players are divided into two teams for the game with coaching and instruction given by well-known NFL and university coaches. Miyazawa’s head coach will be Brian Billick, a long-time NFL veteran who coached the Baltimore Ravens to the 2001 Super Bowl championship. Kevin Sumlin, who has coached at three top Division I college programs, will be the wide receiver coach working most closely with Miyazawa.

In addition to local football fans and a television audience, the game draws attention from virtually every professional football team in North America. The National Football League, the Canadian Football League, Arena (Indoors) Football League and other associations will send scouts to the weeklong series of practices and the All-Star game itself, which kicks off at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, US) on Saturday, January 15.

Many Hula Bowl participants in past years’ games used their performances to earn their selection into the NFL draft or onto the rosters of other professional football leagues, with potentially lucrative payouts and promising careers in the most-popular sport in the United States. NFL team scouts will agonize over a limited number of potential picks that each team has, knowing that their judgments of talent can make or break their team, as well as make or break their own future as assessors of player potential.

Player practices and Saturday’s game will be held at “Bounce-House” Stadium located on the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Through the rest of the week, we will talk to Miyazawa and to Kevin Jackson, Hula Bowl Japan representative who accompanied the two players on the long journey to Florida, about their rich experiences.