Introducing the New Staff of the 2024 Academy School Norte Area Coaches

Kouta Hina Junior Youth Coach / Tomoya Hosone Junior Youth GK Coach / Kazuki Murai School Chief Coach / Yoshinori Takayasu School Support Coach

Every day, coaches at the Antlers Academy convey the wonders of football to children. What football journeys have they walked, and what thoughts do they hold in their hearts as they face the game? In this sixth installment, we speak with four coaches who joined the Norte Junior Youth coaching staff in 2023: Coach Hina, GK Coach Hosone, Chief Coach Murai, and Support Coach Takayasu, who support Norte Area school activities.

Seeing the players grow is my greatest reward

“Even as times change, I have felt firsthand that the Antlers’ traditional strength in clutch moments remains unchanged.”

Now in his second year as a Norte JY coach, Kouta Hina has witnessed the Antlers spirit displayed by the players. Although they suffered a five-game losing streak at the start of the season in the “Kanto Youth (U-15) Soccer League Division 2B” and faced the threat of relegation, they finished the league season with three consecutive wins.

“This year, too, we faced a difficult season, but seeing the players’ attitude in winning at crucial moments made me realize that players with the Antlers spirit are growing. I played against Norte JY and Kashima JY during my junior high school days, and I have the impression that Norte JY was strong during my generation, but even though the style they pursue has changed as times have changed, the Antlers’ traditional strength in clutch moments remains unchanged.” (Coach Hina)

As a child in Saitama Prefecture, he achieved second place in the national tournament with FC Urawa, and later spent his junior high and high school years at an academy in Omiya. Memories of facing the Antlers Academy during his Omiya JY days and his time at Omiya Youth come back to him: “At that time, Kashima Youth was led by Brazilian coach Kikka, so I have the image that they were cunning, unpleasant, and difficult to deal with (laughs). At Sendai University, I faced football not only as a player but also as a coach, and I also gained coaching insights at the prestigious Kyoto Tachibana High School soccer program.”

“When I was a third-year junior high student, Jun Nakamura (now Head of Coaching at the Kofu Academy) became the manager of Omiya JY, and my concept of football changed dramatically to a shocking degree. For me, who had been playing without thinking until then, thinking about how to play more efficiently was extremely difficult, and I suffered without seeing results, but looking back now, I think that meeting Nakamura changed my own football style and way of thinking. Also, from Kyoto Tachibana High School Manager Kazunari Yonezawa, I learned not only about training methods but also about the “power of words.” I was taught that to lead the players in one direction, it is important to communicate clearly with words and build a relationship of trust, and that has become the foundation of my work as a coach.” (Coach Hina)

Then, when he was working on the coaching front at Sendai University, his manager at the time asked him, “It seems Antlers is looking for coaches. How about it?” Coach Hina replied, “I am interested,” and opened the path to Antlers, saying, “At that time, I had not yet worked at a J-League club, so I wanted to know what the world of J-League clubs was like.”

“At Antlers, we value “individual development,” so now I am also studying coaching methods to develop the individuality of the players. Also, in terms of appearance and speech, adults must set an example when coaching children. So that I can become a coach who can set an example myself, I have been absorbing various things from the Antlers staff since 2023, my first year in office. Being able to see the players’ growth in matches is my reward as a coach, so I am very much looking forward to how the Norte JY players will grow into adults in the future.” (Coach Hina)

For Coach Hina, who has coaching experience at the high school and university levels, coaching junior high school students is a new challenge

I want to develop players who can also succeed in Europe

Like Coach Hina, GK Coach Tomoya Hosone has also been coaching Norte JY players since fiscal year 2023. He turned 28 on November 30, and although he laughs, saying, “I am no longer that young anymore, but...” he takes on the role of mediating relationships among the people involved in the team, saying, “I want to be like an older brother to the junior high school students who are going through a sensitive period. There may be things that the players find difficult to say directly to the manager, so I want to be able to stand between the players and the manager, and sometimes between the players themselves, and talk frankly.”

GK Coach Hosone first encountered football in his late elementary school years. “I did not grow up in a family with connections to football, and it was not a sport I particularly liked,” he says, but although he had no connection to football until then, he was drawn into the world of football by a friend’s words, “Why don’t you play with us?”

“The team my friend attended was a powerhouse that competed for first and second place even in my hometown of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo. However, apparently there were no players who wanted to be a GK, and I later heard that “Hosone-kun is strong at dodgeball during school recess, so we wanted him to play GK.” Since then, I have played exclusively in the GK position.” (GK Coach Hosone)

At that time, his friend who scouted young Hosone as a GK had no delusions. Since then, he was selected as a member of the Edogawa Ward training center, and when he became a junior high school student, he joined a powerhouse city club in Tokyo. As a third-year student at Tokai University Affiliated Urayasu High School, he served as captain, and in less than 10 years since starting football, he became a key player on the team. And the reason he moved into coaching was also due to a combination of several coincidences.

“Initially, when I was a university student, I was aiming to become a teacher. However, I failed the teacher recruitment exam, and after graduating from university, I worked part-time as a part-time lecturer at a private school and a cram school instructor, while also working part-time coaching the soccer club at Dokkyo University. Then, Barca Academy Katsushika School, which was operating near my parents’ home, was recruiting coaches, and while wondering whether I should give up on the path of becoming a teacher and continue, I ended up joining Barca Academy Katsushika School to become a full-time football coach.” (GK Coach Hosone)

At Barca Academy Katsushika School, he learned new coaching theories from highly experienced coaches. For GK Coach Hosone, it was content that made the scales fall from his eyes.

“To put it in words, it is coaching that asks the players questions in a logical way so that the players can improve. The accuracy of the timing of speaking to the players and the storytelling in constructing training are important. We finish with a game, but we think of a menu that can produce the results of that day’s training there. The training content was also very interesting, and the players’ growth was fast, so I am greatly influenced by that coach.” (GK Coach Hosone)

While coaching at Barca Academy Katsushika School, another door to a new challenge opened. He met Tsukuba JY GK Coach Motohiro Ohashi at a coaching license seminar, and when asked, “Are you interested in being the GK coach of Norte JY?”, he made up his mind, saying, “I want to work in a team with players of a higher level.”

“I have been thinking this since my time at Barca Academy Katsushika School, but I want to develop players who can also succeed in Europe. For that, I am currently making it my first priority to improve the players in the team so that they can develop both their technical and physical levels at the junior high school stage. And I also have to keep challenging myself. Like the players, I want to aim for overseas as a coach. Recently, as part of the Antlers Academy business, I coached Taiwanese players who came to Japan. I have been able to gain very good experience at Antlers.” (GK Coach Hosone)

GK Coach Hosone’s battle at Antlers has also just begun. Together with Coach Hina, the two coaches who have walked their respective paths will continue to support Norte JY toward further strengthening and the long-awaited participation in the national tournament.

GK Coach Hosone, who returns the experience cultivated at Barca Academy Katsushika School and other places to Norte JY

Conveying the Antlers spirit is my mission

To produce players who will play for Norte JY and succeed in Norte Junior, Norte Area school activities are also very active.

“The majority of the players belonging to Norte Junior and Norte JY come from the school. In order to continue connecting to that, I want more children to join the school, and I want to support them so that they can improve their football and become stronger as players.” (Chief Coach Murai)

Coach Kazuki Murai, who has served as the Chief Coach of the Norte Area School since 2024, speaks with such conviction. It is his third year moving from the Kashima Area to the Norte Area. “Rather than doing something special,” he first focused on the contents of the activities of each school.

“For example, I tried to review and improve various elements such as the placement of the cones in the training menu, the size of the mini-game court, and the way we speak to the children. Whether the children feel joy in football and find the appeal of the Antlers School, and whether the coaching staff is working hard and the children are passionate about it. As the number of children has been decreasing year by year, I thought that it would be difficult to continue operating as before after becoming the Chief Coach of the Norte Area School this year.” (Chief Coach Murai)

In the Kashima Area, which is Antlers’ hometown, and in the Tsukuba Area, which is close to central Tokyo and has a high level of living convenience within Ibaraki Prefecture, there are club-owned grounds such as clubhouses and the Tsukuba Academy Center, but Norte Area does not have one, and they are always operating by borrowing. Even so, they are focusing on school activities and events, and the measures implemented by the club are also attracting a response.

“At events, I also have a feeling that the number of “repeaters” who participate many times is increasing. As proof, there is an event point card that the club also implements in the Kashima Area and Tsukuba Area (one point is awarded for each event participation, and if you collect 10 points, you can get a signed autograph sheet of your favorite player), and in the Norte Area, many children collect 10 points and get the signature of their favorite player. Including such initiatives, we are trying to effectively use the grounds of each school venue in the Norte Area, and through events, we are trying to have children who do not usually join the school come to visit.

And what Norte Area is particularly focusing on is the traveling classes to local elementary schools, kindergartens, and nurseries. Chief Coach Murai also takes pride in saying, “The number of traveling classes is greater compared to the Kashima Area and Tsukuba Area.” At elementary schools, it is an opportunity for school coaches to convey the appeal of moving their bodies to the children through football as “part of a physical education class.” Because they interact with the children with the Antlers emblem on their chest, he emphasizes with conviction, “For us coaching staff, each one of those is a battleground. It is our mission to successfully convey to the children the joy of moving their bodies and the Antlers spirit of working hard.”

“As “Antlers Norte,” I want to establish a unique color that is not found in the Kashima Area or Tsukuba Area. However, although we are only “Norte,” we are Antlers, so I want to continue coaching the children by putting forward the Antlers spirit, such as working hard. I hope that children who feel that appeal will come to the school and events.” (Chief Coach Murai)

School Chief Coach Murai is today also surrounded by the children of the Norte Area, conveying the appeal of football and the Antlers spirit

The joy of winning, and the frustration of losing to the next

Support Coach Takayasu also came to the Norte Area in 2024 with the strong conviction in his heart that “the greatest mission is to convey the appeal of Antlers.”

Until 2023, he served as a school coach in the Kashima Area, and with a fresh start, he came to the Norte Area. In school activities, rather than being in charge of a specific class, he became a role that supports various classes. In addition to that, he also holds the administrative work of the Norte Area. “Until now, I had not been in charge of administrative work, so I also had anxiety about whether I could do it, but now I have gotten used to it, and including school activities, I feel a sense of reward in my work,” he shows a fulfilled expression.

Also, continuing from 2023, when the youth home games are held, he also engages in the match operation work at the Prefectural Kashima Soccer Stadium and Antlers Clubhouse. While working, he says, “I can feel firsthand the atmosphere of the match created by Antlers legends such as Manager Atsushi Yanagisawa who leads the youth, Technical Advisor Mitsuo Okusawara, and Junior Youth GK Coach Jun Sokeguchi,” and he tries to return the atmosphere of the “world of competition” to the school.

“Previously, Head of Coaching Takeshi Satonai said, “There are few players who get frustrated when they lose at rock-paper-scissors.” In those places too, I want to instill the thought of competition into the children, so that they can be particular about winning. However, I think that if we push it harshly, the children will pull back, so I am careful about that dosage. The joy of winning and the frustration of losing. I want to continue to work so that they can connect both of those feelings to the next.” (Support Coach Takayasu)

The reason Support Coach Takayasu thinks so is because, especially the children in the Norte Area, “have the impression that there are many reserved children compared to the children in the Kashima Area.” Furthermore, unlike the Antlers’ backyard, “the Antlers color in the city is not that strong,” and he also feels the difference with the Kashima Area. That is why, “Because it is an area where it is difficult to feel Antlers close by, conversely, we who are the closest existence to the children must firmly convey the appeal of Antlers,” and he fires himself up.

“Among the children, there are also children who touch football for the first time at the school, so first I want to convey that appeal, and ultimately, I hope they like Antlers. Of course, not only the children, but also the parents. In this Norte Area, if more people come to like Antlers, it will be happy for myself too.” (Support Coach Takayasu)

At the school, the experienced coaching staff such as Chief Coach Murai, Support Coach Takayasu who newly joined the Norte Area, and Norte JY Coach Hina and GK Coach Hosone are today facing the children of this region. With the love for football and the pride in the Antlers emblem engraved in their hearts.

Support Coach Takayasu, who pours passion into coaching at the Norte Area School along with the youth match operation and administrative work