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JAPANESE MEN’S NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL TEAM ANNOUNCES NEW HEAD COACH
September 18, 2037; 7:03pm
At last night’s press conference, Japan’s National Men’s Volleyball Team head coach Hibarida Fuki announced that, after 26 seasons, he will be stepping down from his position on the team and officially entering into retirement.
When asked as to his reasoning, Hibarida-san answered, “Volleyball will forever be, to me, the most fascinating, beautiful sport in the world. Leaving the national team after so long has been an incredibly difficult decision. However, with the birth of my third grandchild, I felt it was time to reevaluate my priorities. I found that, with what years I have left on this Earth, I wish to dedicate my focus and energy to my family above all else. However, it has been an honor working with this team for so many seasons, and the way the sport of volleyball continues to evolve and grow never ceases to amaze me. I am incredibly excited to see what the new generation does with the sport, and I hope, as always, to watch boundaries be pushed and new capabilities be discovered. With that said, I firmly believe the future of Japanese men’s volleyball has been placed in expert hands.”
Over the course of his illustrious career, Hibarida-san led the National Men’s Volleyball Team to two gold Olympic medal wins and six world championship titles, one of the most successful coach records in Japanese volleyball history.
Following his retirement announcement, it was revealed that the coach set to replace Hibarida-san on the national team is volleyball legend Oikawa Tooru, age 43, an accomplished former professional indoor player, Olympic gold medalist, and multiple-time world champion, who has spent the past five years coaching professional Argentinian teams SESI São Paulo (2032-2035) and Club Ciudad de Bolívar (2035-2037). A native of Japan and a product of the colloquial “monster generation,” Oikawa-san began playing professionally for CA San Juan S immediately following high school, naturalizing as an Argentinian citizen at age 23. He spent his impressive, two-decade setter career competing on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, and he is widely regarded as one of the best men’s team setters in the history of the sport. Perhaps most famously, his topspin serve speed world record has, to this day, yet to be defeated.
After the conclusion of the press conference, Oikawa-san posted to his social media that he is “excited, after many years abroad, to finally be returning to my birth country. I look forward to fostering the continued growth and evolution of the Japanese men’s national team.”
It was further confirmed by Hibarida-san that Iwaizumi Hajime, former national team athletic trainer and coach for Waseda University (2027-2030) and EJP Raijin (2030-2033) will continue his tenure as assistant coach, a position which he has held for the past four years. When asked online about whether he ever played Oikawa-san as a fellow “monster generation” member, Iwaizumi-san revealed that he and Oikawa-san had, in fact, been teammates in high school. This quickly led to a wave of questions from fans, all wondering if the two men’s history together had been a factor in Oikawa-san’s recruitment.
This morning, the Japanese National Team’s PR released the following statement:
“Questions have arisen regarding our knowledge of the history between Oikawa Tooru, new head coach, and Iwaizumi Hajime, long-time assistant coach. While Oikawa-san was certainly already on our radar as an incredibly accomplished Japanese-Argentinian player and coach, he also received a strong personal recommendation from Iwaizumi-san. Knowing that we wanted to keep Iwaizumi-san on as assistant coach, his insight as to what would best benefit our new leadership team was not taken lightly, and it certainly played a key role in our decision-making process. We hope this answers any inquiries fans may have.”
The news of Oikawa-san’s appointment to head coach has been met with widespread approval and anticipation. Notable players and coaches including Hinata Shouyou, Ushijima Wakatoshi, Kentaro Kyotani—as well as, perhaps most peculiarly, Bouncing Ball CEO Kenma Kozume—have all publicly congratulated him online regarding his new position.
OIKAWA TOORU
(20:11) saw the article
(20:11) "played a key role in the decision-making process,” eh?
IWA-CHAN
Kuroo never did learn to keep his damn mouth shut. (20:18)
BLACKOUT
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