2022年04月08日
ラクロスというマイナースポーツで初めて、スポンサード契約をし、
プロとして活躍した日本人初選手、ラクロスプレイヤー山田幸代氏
* ラクロスは、棒の先に網のついたスティック(クロス)を使い、
テニスボール大の硬質ゴム製のボールを180センチ四方のゴールまで
運んで得点を競う団体球技で、より早いテンポで展開する為、男子は激しく
ぶつかり合うため、ヘルメットやショルダーパットを着用!
彼女がえのきに初めて来店したのは、
ラクロスの試合の記事と写真を掲載する 記者 K氏である。
K氏が、何度かえのきに来店する際、
ラクロス部、男、女の仲間を連れて来た中に、
ひときわ、個性あり関西弁で喋べまくる元気な女性がいた。
なぜか?その女性が後、えのきに出入するようになる。
学生時代から、ラクロス部に入って活躍していたが、
卒業後、普通の会社に働きながら、休みはラクロスの試合に猛プレー
大好きな、このスポーツを未来の子供達に普及したい夢もあった中
プロへの道の話が舞い込んだ?又、海外で実績を積むかどうかも悩んでいた
もっと悩んだ事は結婚の話もあり、悶々の日々が続いた。
そんな時、『安定した人生よりも自分に納得できる人生を選びなさい』と
背中を押してくれたのは”えのき”のママでした。
半年後、オーストラリアに拠点を置き、英語の猛勉強、
イギリスでのワールドカップでは、オーストラリア代表の一員として
優勝、7.8年間での海外遠征
現在ラクロスに関わる、日本でラジオ番組や大学での教鞭他
15年間プロのラクロス選手として、ラクロスをオリンピック競技に
世界に伝え、行動した結果
2028年アメリカ、ロス五輪でほぼ決定?になりそう
Ms Sachiyo Yamada was the first Japanese to sign a sponsored contract and become a professional lacrosse player, a sport that is not very major in Japan.
**Lacrosse is played using a stick (cross) with a net on the end.
A team ball game in which players carry a tennis ball-sized ball to a goal 180 cm square for points.
The game develops at a fast tempo, and the men in particular wear helmets and shoulder pads because of the violent collisions.
Ms. Yamada first came to Enoki through an introduction by Mr. K, a reporter who used to take pictures of lacrosse games.
When Mr. K visited Enoki, he frequently brought his lacrosse teammates, both men and women.
Among them, Ms. Yamada was a very energetic woman with a unique personality and spoke in a Kansai dialect.
Later, she also became a regular customer of Enoki.
She had been an active member of the lacrosse club since her school days.
After graduating from college, she worked at a general company and was busy competing in lacrosse games on her days off.
She was very happy when she was offered a chance to become a professional, but the question of whether or not she would be able to achieve her achievements abroad, where she had never lived, troubled her.
What bothered her the most was also her marriage timing, and she spent many days agonizing over the challenge of going abroad.
I told her, 'Choose a life that is not public to yourself over a stable life,' and she decided to go to Australia.
A half year later, she was based in Australia, living back and forth between Japan and Australia.
She studied English hard and won the World Cup in England as a member of the Australian team!
Gradually, she began to see the need to increase the number of people playing the sport she loved and to promote it to the children of the future.
She now appears regularly on lacrosse-related radio programs in Japan and coaches lacrosse at universities.
As a professional lacrosse player for 15 years, she wants to make lacrosse an Olympic sport! and acted to communicate it to the world, and as a result, it is expected to be adopted for the Los Angeles Olympics, which will probably be held in the United States in 2028.
I am also supporting them.